Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health

by Amanda Glassman, Miriam Temin

Overview

Authored by Amanda Glassman and Miriam Temin with the Millions Saved Team and Advisory Group, Millions Saved: News Cases of Proven Success in Global Health, shows what works—and what doesn’t—in global health.

In a foreword to the book, Bill Gates says, “I encourage global health experts, policymakers, funders, and anyone else interested in helping create a better world to read Millions Saved. I am confident you will come away with a clearer sense of what the world has learned about fighting some of our biggest health challenges—and how we can use that knowledge to save even more lives.”

Over the past fifteen years, people in low- and middle-income countries have experienced a health revolution—one that has created new opportunities and brought new challenges. It is a revolution that keeps mothers and babies alive, helps children grow, and enables adults to thrive.

Millions Saved: New Cases of Proven Success in Global Health chronicles the global health revolution from the ground up, showcasing twenty-two local, national, and regional health programs that have been part of this global change. The book profiles eighteen remarkable cases in which large-scale efforts to improve health in low- and middle-income countries succeeded, and four examples of promising interventions that fell short of their health targets when scaled-up in real world conditions. Each case demonstrates how much effort—and sometimes luck—is required to fight illness and sustain good health.

The cases are grouped into four main categories, reflecting the diversity of strategies to improve population health in low-and middle-income countries: rolling out medicines and technologies; expanding access to health services; targeting cash transfers to improve health; and promoting population-wide behavior change to decrease risk. The programs covered also come from various regions around the world: seven from sub-Saharan Africa, six from Latin America and the Caribbean, five from East and Southeast Asia, and four from South Asia.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933286884
Publisher:	Center for Global Development
Publication date:	05/30/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	300
Product dimensions:	7.99(w) x 9.88(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Amanda Glassman is vice president for programs, director of global health policy, and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, leading work on priority-setting, resource allocation and value for money in global health, with a particular interest in vaccination. She has 20 years of experience working on health and social protection policy and programs in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world. Prior to her current position, Glassman was principal technical lead for health at the Inter-American Development Bank, where she led health economics and financing knowledge products and policy dialogue with member countries, designed the results-based grant program Salud Mesoamerica 2015 and served as team leader for conditional cash transfer programs such as Mexico’s Oportunidades and Colombia’s Familias en Accion.

Miriam Temin is project director for the Building Capacity for DREAMS Girl Platforms at the Population Council. She has nearly 20 years of experience developing strategies and advising on policies for donors, United Nations agencies, think tanks, and NGOs in the United States, Africa, and Europe. Temin is an expert on adolescent girls, sexual and reproductive health, social determinants of health, HIV, and social protection. Prior to joining the Council, Temin served as a consultant to the Center for Global Development. She has also been a consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she was a lead writer for The Lancet/Harvard Women and Health Commission report on the interplay between women’s health and caregiving roles, and worked at UNICEF and the UK’s Department for International Development.

Table of Contents

Foreword Bill Gates xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Glossary xv

Introduction: Global Health Revolution 1

Structure of the Book 11

Part I Rolling Out Medicine and Technology 13

1 Beginning of the End: Eliminating Meningitis A across Africa's Meningitis Belt 15

An old scourge, meningitis A, meets a new vaccine, MenAfriVac. Two hundred seventeen million immunizations later, African countries achieve historic reductions in incidence and deaths.

2 Making the Impossible Possible: Botswana's Mass Antiretroviral Therapy Program 23

The government distributes lifesaving treatment at zero cost to Batswana living with HIV, and AIDS deaths plummet by more than 70 percent in less than a decade.

3 Reducing Cancer Risk in China: Equalizing Hepatitis B Vaccine Coverage 31

China's government extends the reach of hepatitis B vaccination nationwide and blocks a looming liver cancer epidemic.

4 One Mosquito at a Time: Zambia's National Malaria Control Program 39

Zambia goes all in with proven tools to fight malaria-spreading mosquitoes, helping more children reach their fifth birthday.

5 A Solid Foundation for Child Health: Mexico's Piso Firme Program 49

Concrete flooring brings concrete health gains for Mexican children in poor households, and even their mothers become measurably happier.

6 A Fresh Start for a Bright Future: Kenya's School-Based Deworming Program 58

School-based treatment gives millions of Kenyan children a worm-free childhood, with lifelong benefits for their health and livelihoods.

7 An Outbreak Halted in Its Tracks: Eliminating Polio in Haiti 67

Relying on proven tactics, Haiti goes school to school and house to house to vaccinate kids and halts a polio outbreak.

8 Learning from Disappointment: The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness in Bangladesh 77

In Bangladesh, a package of proven interventions falls short on effectiveness at scale and falls to move the needle on under-five deaths.

Part II Expanding Access to Health Services 87

9 Health Access for All: Thailand's Universal Coverage Scheme 89

Thai citizens get universal access to essential health services at zero cost and reap major benefits as babies become healthier, workers increase their productivity, and households reduce financial risk.

10 Paying for Provincial Performance in Health: Argentina's Plan Nacer 97

Through a structured system of incentive payments, Argentina's national government tangos with provincial authorities to take on a spiraling health crisis for newborns.

11 Tackling Disease at Its Roots: Brazil's Programa Saúde da Família 106

Elevating high-quality primary care from the sidelines to center stage, Brazil cuts deaths from heart disease and reduces unnecessary hospital visits.

12 Motivating Health Workers, Motivating Better Health: Rwanda's Pay-for-Performance Scheme for Health Services 113

In Rwanda, paying providers for results gets results: increased use of health services and growth and weight gain for children.

13 Learning from Disappointment: Reducing the Cost of Institutional Delivery in Gujarat, India 121

Gujarat takes on maternal and neonatal mortality with incentives for facility-based delivery but without addressing service quality and demand, and increased use fails to improve health.

Part III Using Targeted Cash Transfers to Improve Health 131

14 Giving Vulnerable Children a Fair Shot: Kenya's Social Cash Transfer Program 133

Cash transfers give a helping hand to caretakers of ultra-poor and vulnerable Kenyan children, generating major reductions in risky behaviors and better mental health.

15 Protecting Childhood: Punjab's Female School Stipend Program 142

Conditional cash transfers help Punjabi girls stay in school, empowering them to marry later and avoid early pregnancies-good news for their reproductive health.

16 A Step Up for the Children Apartheid Left Behind: South Africa's Child Support Grant 151

In post-apartheid South Africa, cash grants help level the playing field for children living in poverty, improving their nutrition while reducing early pregnancy and risky behaviors.

17 Learning from Disappointment: Honduras's Programa de Asignación Familiar II 160

In Honduras, cash transfers help families access health services but don't improve health.

Part IV Changing Behavior Population-Wide to Reduce Risk 169

18 Cracking Down on Lighting Up: Thailand's Campaign for Tobacco Control 171

Thailand cuts smoking by a quarter after taking on transnational tobacco with tax hikes, health warnings, and new laws and restrictions.

19 Improving Road Safety: Vietnam's Comprehensive Helmet Law 181

Complying with a new law and stepped-up enforcement, Vietnam's motorcyclists don helmets and prevent traumatic brain injuries.

20 A Persuasive Plea to Become "Open Defecation Free": Indonesia's Total Sanitation and Sanitation Marketing Program 190

Triggered by a call to action, Indonesian communities band together to eliminate open defecation and reduce diarrheal disease.

21 Empowering Communities to Tackle HIV: India's Avahan Program 199

In India, targeted community outreach and health services for the most at-risk affected populations help stem the spread of HIV.

22 Learning from Disappointment: Peru's Handwashing Initiative 209

A handwashing campaign in Peru gets mothers to lather up but fails to clean up the burden of fecally transmitted diseases.

Methods Used in Selecting and Analyzing Millions Saved Cases 218

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

This is one of the most uplifting volumes on global health that I have come across. Solid evidence of cost-effective health interventions at scale gives us hope that millions more lives of the poorest and most vulnerable among us can be saved.”
—Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Former Finance Minister, Nigeria

“I encourage global health experts, policymakers, funders, and anyone else interested in helping create a better world to read Millions Saved. I am confident you will come away with a clearer sense of what the world has learned about fighting some of our biggest health challenges—and how we can use that knowledge to save even more lives.”
—Bill Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“This book serves as both an inspiration and as a practical tool—it reminds us that our work is constantly evolving and that our investments yield tangible change. These stories are proof that we are making a difference.”
—Jimmy Kolker, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, United States Department of Health and Human Services

“Positive deviance is usually thought of as finding the successful examples in a community, learning what they do best, and then scaling up those behaviors. This book is about global positive deviance. The authors have found examples of exceptional success in global health that serve as lessons for all of us working in the field.”
—Stefano Bertozzi, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Public Health

“As we look forward, and begin the work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the chronicles of global health presented in this and previous editions of Millions Saved provide us with documented evidence on what works and does not work in global public health. The studies from Latin America showcase that targeted interventions addressing the needs of vulnerable and marginal populations can yield enormous dividends in health, social and economic development.”
—Carissa Etienne, Director, Pan American Health Organization

“I applaud the book’s range of major categories of interventions for improving health, its learnings from programs that disappointed at scale, and its incorporation of costs in the discussion about program effectiveness and impact. Importantly, the book draws conclusions about common features and key lessons, rather than only offering a compilation of interesting case studies, which is essential for the volume to be effective.”
—Jere Behrman, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
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“This is one of the most uplifting volumes on global health that I have come across. Solid evidence of cost-effective health interventions at scale gives us hope that millions more lives of the poorest and most vulnerable among us can be saved.”
—Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Former Finance Minister, Nigeria

“I encourage global health experts, policymakers, funders, and anyone else interested in helping create a better world to read Millions Saved. I am confident you will come away with a clearer sense of what the world has learned about fighting some of our biggest health challenges—and how we can use that knowledge to save even more lives.”
—Bill Gates, Co-chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“This book serves as both an inspiration and as a practical tool—it reminds us that our work is constantly evolving and that our investments yield tangible change. These stories are proof that we are making a difference.”
—Jimmy Kolker, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, United States Department of Health and Human Services

“Positive deviance is usually thought of as finding the successful examples in a community, learning what they do best, and then scaling up those behaviors. This book is about global positive deviance. The authors have found examples of exceptional success in global health that serve as lessons for all of us working in the field.”
—Stefano Bertozzi, Dean, UC Berkeley School of Public Health

“As we look forward, and begin the work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, the chronicles of global health presented in this and previous editions of Millions Saved provide us with documented evidence on what works and does not work in global public health. The studies from Latin America showcase that targeted interventions addressing the needs of vulnerable and marginal populations can yield enormous dividends in health, social and economic development.”
—Carissa Etienne, Director, Pan American Health Organization

“I applaud the book’s range of major categories of interventions for improving health, its learnings from programs that disappointed at scale, and its incorporation of costs in the discussion about program effectiveness and impact. Importantly, the book draws conclusions about common features and key lessons, rather than only offering a compilation of interesting case studies, which is essential for the volume to be effective.”
—Jere Behrman, Professor, University of Pennsylvania
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From the Publisher