A recording of the February grassroots conference call is now available. We were joined this month by Amy Dodd of the UK Aid Network (UKAN). Amy has worked extensively in politics, policy and campaigning, including most recently as an advisor in the Shadow International Development team in UK Parliament, focusing on gender, economic development, conflict and climate change issues. Amy is now the Director of UKAN, a network of UK NGOs that conducts joint policy, analysis and advocacy work to make the case for increasing the volume and quality of official development assistance.
Amy shared with us her knowledge on the issue of ‘transition’, which is emerging as a major global health threat. As countries move from low to middle-income status, they can lose eligibility for donor financing but, even if a country moves up the income ladder, this does not necessarily translate into funding for health, or indeed the political will to spend more on health. As there are now more people living in poverty in Middle-Income Countries than Low-Income Countries, uncoordinated donor withdrawal threatens the health of millions of vulnerable people.