Weekly News Roundup
News, Events and Observations about Health Markets in the Developing World
General News
The Center for Global Development in partnership with the UK-based organization Social Finance recently established a working group to explore a new development financing mechanism called Development Impact Bonds. The bonds will be financial tools that allow private investors to invest and receive dividends from development projects. You can read more about this innovative project here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a new publication, “Guidance on couples HIV testing and counseling, including antiretroviral therapy for treatment and prevention in serodiscordant couples: recommendations for a public health approach”. Serodiscordant couples are couples where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not. Interesting read!
According to accounting and consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), the global market for mobile health (mhealth) products will reach $23 billion by 2017, with most of the growth occurring in lower-and-middle income countries (LMICs). Mobile health products such as Nokia’s Ovi Life Tools and Arogya World Diabetes SMS Service have been slow to gain traction stateside, but they have exploded in popularity across LMICs. Read more about this trend here and the publication here.
The U.S. Senate Committee for Appropriations recently approved a $100 million budget increase for the National Institute of Health, one of the world’s foremost medical research centers and the premier governmental medical research organization in the United States, 2013 fiscal year. While this was met with slight disappointment by researchers as this increase will only account for 0.33% of the NIH’s $30.723 billion budget, it is higher than previously thought - nothing - which was what President Obama recommended to be the institution’s most recent increase. You can read more here and the Senate Subcommittee’s press release on the matter here.
A recent article in The Economist examining the effects of the “brain-drain” of primary care physicians in lower-and-middle income countries (LMICs) says that increasing healthcare worker training programs without prohibiting doctors from migrating freely may be a better alternative than the strictly anti-migration efforts organizations such as WHO have thus far recommended. Click here to read more.
Opportunities
The ILO Microinsurance Innovation Facility, an organization under the International Labour Organization (ILO) and one of the financers of the Microinsurance Network, is putting on an interactive webinar to promote the Microinsurance Compendium Vol II, a publication that covers the major trends of the microinsurance sector. The webinar will include a presentation on microinsurance trends, a short presentation from guest authors and experts on the microinsurance sector, and a Q&A session for online participants. The event is Tuesday, July 3rd, from 4:00pm-6:30pm EST and you can learn more about the event here and register for free here. Register as soon as possible to guarantee your participation!
The 2012 mHealth Summit, the premier international forum for connecting the mobile health ecosystem to mHealth research, education, and thought leadership has issued a call for presentations for their December 3-5 event. The summit will feature its first ever Global Health track, which will showcase applications for mHealth topics in the global health field. Learn more and share your experience and expertise by submitting your proposal here and registering here. The submission deadline for presentations is June 29th at 12pm so make sure to submit your proposal soon!
Action For India (AFI), a social start-up enterprise dedicated to helping social organizations scale-up their impact by leveraging Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), has recently launched Growth Prize competition and will select five social enterprises that demonstrate significant progress using technology to scale reach and impact. Each winner will receive INR 5,00,000 in funding and a bundle of free IT, legal, financial and consulting services. The deadline for the application is June 18, 2012 and you can learn more about the competition here and here.
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) announced Tuesday the launch of the ANDE Research Initiative at the ANDE Metrics Conference, a new program that will support research on the impact of small and growing businesses (SGBs) on poverty. The research initiative has released its first call for proposals, with proposals due July 30 2012. Learn more about the initiative and how to submit your proposal here.