The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were defined in 2001, making poverty the central focus of the global political agenda. In response to MDG targets for health, new funding instruments called Global Health Initiatives were set up to target specific diseases, with an emphasis on 'quick win'...

Low-income countries face numerous challenges in the health sector. Resources currently dedicated to health services are insufficient and there is a need for an increase in the efforts from the North. Yet, a reflection on the way health systems are organised in the South is required as well. A...

A forthcoming report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on evidence for policy is already fuelling passionate debate, especially among scientists. Opinions are divided: some scientists believe strongly in the systematic assessment of evidence on the effectiveness of health system...

COVID-19 mortality has remained low in the poorest countries, exposing the fragile link between prosperity and health. Emerging evidence suggests SARS-CoV-2 did spread widely in low-income countries, but infections were largely asymptomatic. We suggest the demographic transition, the...

Scaling-up antiretroviral treatment (ART) to socially meaningful levels in low-income countries with a high AIDS burden is constrained by (1) the continuously growing caseload of people to be maintained on long-term ART; (2) evident problems of shortage and skewed distribution in the health...

Background: As the human cost of the global economic crisis becomes apparent the ongoing discussions surrounding the post-2015 global development framework continue at a frenzied pace. Given the scale and scope of increased globalization moving forward in a post-Millennium Development Goals era,...

The treatment outcomes for large-scale public antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs in developing countries, although promising, are still preliminary. The scaling-up of ART in resource-limited settings is inevitably hampered by human resource shortages. Therefore, community support for ART...

Objectives To understand how knowledge is used to inform policy on Health Equity Funds (HEFs) in Cambodia; and to draw lessons for translating knowledge into health policies that promote equity.Methods We used a knowledge translation framework to analyse the HEF policy process between 2000 and...