The WHO’s Finances and Colombia’s Success With Maternal Care

Editors' Note

This week, Think Global Health (TGH) spotlights the Hospital Padrino strategy, a successful maternal-care initiative created by the Fundación Valle del Lili, a not-for-profit university hospital in Cali, Colombia. 

A year ago, the country's Ministry of Health  adopted the initiative—which partners larger, higher-quality hospitals with smaller medical centers—in a bid to reduce maternal mortality rates in rural areas. As Strategy Chief María Fernanda Escobar Vidarte writes, Colombia's maternal mortality rate has been gradually falling since 2010, but the COVID-19 pandemic reversed much of the progress. Over six months last year, the Hospital Padrino strategy achieved a 16 percent reduction in the maternal mortality rate across sixteen territories, and the plan is now expanding nationwide.  

This week's edition travels next to Africa for a pair of stories. The first comes from Julie Gichuru at the Mastercard Foundation, who discusses a new approach to philanthropy, drawing on lessons African countries learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second features findings from a new Lancet study—coauthored by Heather Stobaugh of Action Against Hunger—that explains  why some children relapse  after recovering from severe acute malnutrition.  

TGH then continues its coverage of U.S. presidential candidates and their health policies as the Iowa caucuses kick off what will likely be an eventful election cycle. Journalist Erica Zurek analyzes Nikki Haley's record as former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina to glean where the presidential hopeful stands on foreign aid and health topics such as abortion. For those who missed it: Check out our analysis from last autumn on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's COVID-19 response. TGH will feature more candidate analyses, including ones on President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, as the year progresses.    

To close out the week, Lori Sloate, senior director for global health at the UN Foundation, previews what to expect at next week's World Health Organization (WHO) executive board meeting. On the docket are a revamped financing model to secure more predictable and sustainable funding, international conflicts, the Pandemic Agreement, and the Immunization Agenda 2030. 

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor