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July 2011

Innovation is a key component of reforming foreign aid, blog says

July 27, 2011 -- Last month US Representatives Albio Sires (D-NJ) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) introduced a new bill, the 21st Century Global Health Technology Act, Aaron Emmel, a government affairs officer at PATH, writes in a Modernizing Foreign Assistance (MFAN) blog post. He adds, “In addition to supporting innovation at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the bill also promotes transparency and accountability by providing legislative authority for some of USAID’s work in this area and by directing the agency to provide annual reports to Congress on its global health research and development activities. The bill also calls for these activities to be aligned with a global development strategy, to help ensure a more efficient and coherent structure for US foreign assistance.”

“Innovation has been a key platform of foreign assistance reform,” Emmel writes, adding that this “emphasis is due to the fact that innovation is critical to USAID’s mission, particularly in global health. Simple new technologies can make it easier, safer, and cheaper to get vaccines, drugs, and other interventions to the people who need them.” According to Emmel, innovation is “also a key part of reform because it can cut costs. UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimate that the use of vaccine vial monitors could save up to $5 million per year globally in vaccine wastage costs.” He writes that an “added bonus is that in addition to being a driver of development, innovation is also an engine for American jobs: Temptime, the New Jersey company that makes the monitors, is keeping Americans employed while it exports its product around the world.” See the links below for more information.

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