Business Finance

Compiled by a panel of 27 top-level leaders appointed by the UN Secretary-General in 2012, A new global partnership: eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development, provides a framework driven by five key transformative shifts. These build on and move beyond the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which committed the world to achieving a number of targets by 2015, including eradicating poverty.

Advances in HIV treatment research in 2010 and 2011 saw improvement in treatment regimens and strategies, and reinvigorated optimism for finding a cure. In 2012, TAG and AVAC, with financial support from UNAIDS, put forth a collaborative effort to analyze investment trends in HIV treatment research and development (R&D) in 2010 and 2011.

The latest report, Funding Scientific Innovation: Global Investments in HIV Treatment Research and Development in 2010 and 2011, found US$2.6 billion was invested in HIV treatment R&D in 2011. Data from 41 public, private, and philanthropic donors reveal a 12% increase in funding from the baseline year of 2009, with the majority of funding targeted at research for new medications.

"Promoting Access to Medical Technologies and Innovation" examines the interplay between public health, trade and intellectual property, and how these policy domains affect medical innovation and access to medical technologies. Co-published by the World Health Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the World Trade Organization, the study draws together the three Secretariats’ respective areas of expertise.

Five key emerging market economies, commonly termed the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), have been lauded for their stellar economic growth and resilience through the 2008/09 financial crisis. They are becoming models of development for development practitioners, researchers and other emerging economies. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and you will notice that not all people in these countries have benefited equally from growth. Some countries have seen enormous increases in income inequality – specifically China, India and South Africa; Brazil has enjoyed a reduction. What can be learnt, in terms of the challenges and successes of reconciling growth and equity, from the BRICS’ recent growth?

While donor funding for health in low and middle-income countries rose significantly in the last decade, the era of rapid growth has come to an end. Health increased as a share of Official Development Assistance (ODA) during the early part of the past decade, largely spurred on by the creation of several new funding initiatives and mechanisms such as The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). However, this share has remained essentially flat in recent years, with year-to-year increases in donor funding for health peaking in 2007, and declining each year since.

THIS KWIK-SKWIZ: summarises the changes to the National Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines. The current guidelines were released in 2010. The changes summarised here were released and implemented in 2012.

Health Systems Trust is a dynamic, not-for-profit organisation that supports the development of an equitable and comprehensive health system for the provision of quality health care in South and southern Africa.

Health Systems Trust (HST) wishes to appoint a Finance Manager to implement and en-hance our financial and accounting systems and procedures in support of our various sec-tions and to support the Director: Finance and Corporate Services in ensuring HST’s sound corporate governance.

This senior management position, based in our Westville (Durban) office, is subject to a one year, fixed-term contract renewable depending on performance and funding.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

This Kwik Skwiz: Summarises the National Strategic Plan (NSP) on HIV, STIs and TB 2012 – 2016

Feasible universal health coverage in South Africa seemed ever more remote last month as a dysfunctional Department of Public Works continued to stymie vital public hospital revitalisation projects, and five provinces proved grossly incapable of spending their health budgets.