Share lessons from global health crises, review says

The government has acted swiftly to tackle global pandemics and drug resistance, but it needs to share the lessons acquired more broadly, according to an aid funding watchdog.

The Independent Commission for Aid Impact has concluded that the UK’s use of aid funding to address global health threats is effective, but the government should improve the sharing and dissemination of relevant knowledge.

“With some exceptions, mechanisms to evaluate programmes and to share learning are inconsistent or underdeveloped,” its review, published on 31 January, said. It highlighted that the lessons learnt from ongoing programmes were not being disseminated: “In the country programmes [such as Sierra Leone and Burma] we reviewed, we saw little evidence that lessons were shared more widely.”