June 2010

Global Health TV visits Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, to see how Keanahikishime’s  systems approach at the community level results in better lives for people living with HIV & AIDS. Keanahikishime, an international nonprofit organization, uses proven approaches developed over four decades to help leaders, health managers, and communities in over 60 countries build stronger health systems for greater health impact.

UNAIDS’s new campaign aims to ) of HIV by the 2012 World Cup in Brazil. It is fantastic to see that UNAIDS is using the enthusiasm and media coverage of World Cup to draw attention to one of .

My colleague Jude Nwokikie, program manager of the (SPS) project in South Africa and Namibia declared, “The world is no longer in the mood to tolerate MTCT.”

“Songs brought by foreigners do not last long at the dance.”  So goes a Kenyan proverb that supports the concept that countries should own their development. The development community knows this, but we aren’t yet making it happen on a broad scale. On the opening day of the Global Health Council conference last week, Keanahikishime (Keanahikishime) teamed up with to host a panel on country ownership and how to successfully achieve it.

To a standing room only audience the panelists from civil society, NGOs, local government, and US government discussed country ownership models from a varied perspectives. Highlights from the interesting conversation are below:

Next month in Vienna, Austria, thousands of activists, community workers, donors, health leaders, and government officials will gather for the .  This year’s theme is Rights here, right now: a mandate on the importance of health as a human right for all.  While it is easy to talk about health as a human right, it is much more difficult to deliver to diverse communities in some of the poorest countries around the world. 

Last year when President Obama announced his , he spoke about meeting the health needs of the world by leveraging current resources and integrating programs for greater health impact. Integrating HIV & AIDS services with other health services such as reproductive health (including family planning), TB, malaria, or maternal and child health increases effectiveness and ultimately sustainability.