This Brookings Institution report looks at Cambodia's health sector: Starting in 1999, the government outsourced management of government health services to NGOs in five districts that had been ramdomly made eligible for contracting. The evidence suggests that health improved in the outsourced districts.

A report from Oxfam arguing that hunger in Africa is not inevitable. The report says that the world’s emergency response requires an overhaul so that it delivers prompt, equitable, and effective assistance to people suffering from lack of food. Oxfam also argues that governments need to tackle the root causes of hunger, which include poverty, agricultural mismanagement, conflict, unfair trade rules, and the unprecedented problems of HIV/AIDS and climate change.

Listen to panelists present the issues surrounding maternal health as a foreign policy objective

Watch panelists present the issues surrounding maternal health as a foreign policy objective

Listen to panelists discuss possible policies to improve the state of maternal health both in the United States and abroad.

Watch panelists discuss possible policies to improve the state of maternal health both in the United States and abroad.

This half-day symposium explored the issue of maternal mortality which, defined as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within 42 days of delivery, remains shockingly high in most of the world. The second panel laid out policy prescriptions for tackling the shocking number of maternal deaths.

This half-day symposium explored the issue of maternal mortality—defined as the death of a pregnant woman during her pregnancy or within forty-two days of delivery—remains shockingly high in most of the world. The first panel explained the magnitude of the problem and factors driving it.

While security remains the top concern, Iraq's new government must also confront the dearth of basic services, including water and electricity. Oil production, still below prewar levels, remains crucial to lifting the welfare of Iraqis.

An editorial in the British Medical Journal celebrates the fact that 2006 will be the first year in human history when women can expect to enjoy a longer life expectancy than men across the world.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus has now crept well into Europe—infecting birds in Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Denmark—and now also threatens Africa. Experts are at a loss over how to best tackle what could be an imminent global pandemic.

The Global Business Goalition on HIV/AIDS reports on how the business community can fight AIDS worldwide.