Run the Room It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble... ↓ It's what you know that just ain't so. For years, everybody working in global health knew that US foreign aid wouldn't pay health workers’ salaries. The logic seemed obvious: salaries are recurring costs. They come round every month, forever. US foreign aid doesn't do forever. It funds projects, catalyses change, builds capacity, then leaves. But wait, doesn't the US government fund recurring costs all day long? It pays...

Run the Room The minister believes you ↓ Lat week we talked about how—and how not—to persuade a senior decision-maker. But what if she already agrees with you? Nearly two thousand caregivers in Brazil were recently asked why their child wasn’t fully vaccinated. Fear of the vaccine (refusal, side effects, things read on the internet) accounted for 1.7%. Couldn't get there, because the clinic was far or open only during the hours you are at work: 7.9%. And the largest group, 16.4%, had turned...

Run the Room Nobody joins a scolding ↓ Health advocacy often comes down to telling a government minister that he is killing children. Which is sometimes true. But consider the minister. He did not wake up this morning and decide to kill children—he woke with a budget set by someone else, three things on fire, a civil servant telling him what's wrong with his plan, and now there is an email from you about dead babies. It will not endear him to your argument. (However right you are about the...