Are there any USAID programs (other than PEPFAR) that you’d like to shout out as probably in the top 10% of cost-effectiveness, and particularly important to save or resurrect?
There are currently three or four areas I’m really looking out for at the moment:
The Demographic and Health Surveys, which were collecting various types of data from many lower- and middle-income countries on population sizes, maternal and child health, urban living, income, water & sanitation, etc. and were terminated earlier this year. It costs around $40M per year. I think that’s modest for such a large program, but also because it feeds into a very wide range of datasets used by researchers on many topics. Some of the data it collects are used as covariates or denominators (e.g. population size) for many metrics; and it’s really important if we want to track progress and make estimates of the cost-effectiveness of other global health programs in those countries.
The ‘urgent and vetted’ list by the Project Resource Optimization team includes several likely highly impactful and cost-effective programs. They started with all the projects whose USAID funding was cut and whittled it down to what are likely to be the most impactful global health and humanitarian programs that were cut. I donated to one of them (installing clean water pipes in Nigeria), hoping it would help get it across the threshold to be funded, and it looks like it has since then!
The various clinical trials running abroad whose funding were cut, especially for new vaccines, treatments and testing methods for tuberculosis and HIV. I think there’s a possibility this might be reversed or it could be restored in some way. But knowing there are some potentially promising treatments in the pipeline that could increase efficacy or reduce costs in the future that have suddenly lost funding for the final stages of testing is quite depressing!
Are there any USAID programs (other than PEPFAR) that you’d like to shout out as probably in the top 10% of cost-effectiveness, and particularly important to save or resurrect?
Great question!
There are currently three or four areas I’m really looking out for at the moment:
The Demographic and Health Surveys, which were collecting various types of data from many lower- and middle-income countries on population sizes, maternal and child health, urban living, income, water & sanitation, etc. and were terminated earlier this year. It costs around $40M per year. I think that’s modest for such a large program, but also because it feeds into a very wide range of datasets used by researchers on many topics. Some of the data it collects are used as covariates or denominators (e.g. population size) for many metrics; and it’s really important if we want to track progress and make estimates of the cost-effectiveness of other global health programs in those countries.
The ‘urgent and vetted’ list by the Project Resource Optimization team includes several likely highly impactful and cost-effective programs. They started with all the projects whose USAID funding was cut and whittled it down to what are likely to be the most impactful global health and humanitarian programs that were cut. I donated to one of them (installing clean water pipes in Nigeria), hoping it would help get it across the threshold to be funded, and it looks like it has since then!
The various clinical trials running abroad whose funding were cut, especially for new vaccines, treatments and testing methods for tuberculosis and HIV. I think there’s a possibility this might be reversed or it could be restored in some way. But knowing there are some potentially promising treatments in the pipeline that could increase efficacy or reduce costs in the future that have suddenly lost funding for the final stages of testing is quite depressing!