For a health reform model, try Brazil
With the 2015 deadline to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) approaching, scholars and government officials gathered at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) on Tuesday to search for lessons in the dramatic progress that Brazil has made in recent decades. The eight Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, set targets to attain international development objectives, including reducing extreme poverty and hunger; reducing child mortality; improving maternal health; achieving universal primary education; increasing equality for women; fighting AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and fostering global partnerships for development. The Harvard-Brazil Symposium, held in HSPH’s Kresge Building, featured discussions of the health-related goals and of Brazil’s progress in meeting them. It was sponsored by the Department of Global Health and Population, which is marking its 50th anniversary, as well as the Harvard Global Health Institute and Fundação Maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal. Harvard School of Public Health Dean Julio...