Rural areas of China have made remarkable progress in reducing adult mortality within the past 15 years yet broadened health insurance was not a casual factor in that decline, according to a new study by an international research team that includes Asia Health Policy Program Director Karen Eggleston.

The New Cooperative Medical Scheme (NCMS), a government-subsidized insurance program that began in 2002-03, expanded to cover all of rural China within a decade. Examining NCMS and cause-specific mortality data for a sample of 72 counties between 2004 and 2012, the researchers found that there were no significant effects of health insurance expansion on increased life expectancy.

The study, published in the September issue of Health Affairs, showed results consistent with previous studies that also did not find a correlation between insurance and survival, although much research confirms NCMS increased access to healthcare, including preventive services, and shielded families from high health expenditures.

Commenting on the study, Eggleston said population health policies remain central to China’s efforts to increase life expectancy and to bridge the gap between rural and urban areas.

Eggleston also noted that multiple factors beyond the availability of health care determine how long people live, and anticipates the research team will continue to explore the impacts of NCMS by extending the study to look at infants and youth.

Read the study (may require subscription) and view a related article on the Stanford Scope blog.

Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) is proud to announce the selected practitioners for the 2017-18 Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program. 

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“This inaugural program is CDDRL’s first year-long academic program aimed at mid-career professionals,” said Mosbacher Director of CDDRL Director Francis Fukuyama. “We see this as a wonderful opportunity to train Ukrainian leaders and equip them with the networks and resources to advance democratic change in a country where it is urgently needed.”

In its inaugural year, the program received an overwhelming response with 340 applications for just three positions. Starting this September, an outstanding group of Ukrainian leaders who are working to achieve and strengthen democratic reforms, civil society, transparency and economic development in their various sectors will have the opportunity to study at Stanford and to launch a project to support democratization in Ukraine. The following emerging leaders were selected for their contributions to Ukraine’s political development, their leadership potential and strong project proposals:

Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights defender who works on advancing democracy in Ukraine and the OSCE region. At present, she heads the human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties and also coordinates the work of the initiative group Euromaidan SOS, which aided persecuted protesters during the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-14. In 2016, she received the Democracy Defender Award for "Exclusive Contribution to Promoting Democracy and Human Rights" from missions to the OSCE.

Dmytro Romanovych works at the Reform Delivery Office for the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. Romanovych is an advisor to the Minister of Economy, and is responsible for deregulation and improving the business climate in Ukraine. In addition, he is an economic expert in the largest NGO coalition in Ukraine, the Reanimation Package of Reforms, which is the most influential non-governmental reform advocate in the country.

Olexandr Starodubtsev is a Ukrainian reformer who is deeply involved in the creation of a new electronic public procurement system Prozorro. Starodubtsev is the head of the Public Procurement Regulation Department in The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, and is an official policymaker in the spheres of public procurement and economic development in Ukraine.

This program would not have been possible without the support of a set of generous partners and donors. We would like to thank WNISEF, Sviatoslav Vakarchuk, Tomas Fiala and Astem.Foundation for their generous support of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program. We would also like to acknowledge Oleksandr and Kateryna Akymenko for their work to design and launch this program, and our Draper Hills Summer Fellows alumni Olga Aivazovska, Vasyl Marmazov, Kateryna Ryabiko, and Svitlana Zalishchuk for their assistance in the review process.

A public event to celebrate the launch of the Ukrainian Emerging Leaders Program will take place on October 3, 2017 at Stanford University. More information is forthcoming.

To read more in Ukrainian, please click here. For updates, please sign up for our newsletter here.

The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University collaborates widely with academics, policymakers and practitioners around the world to advance knowledge and practice about democracy, broad-based economic development, human rights, and the rule of law. We are deeply concerned by the recent executive order on immigration issued by the new administration. This order impacts members of our community - students, practitioners, academics, and visitors - who come to Stanford to attend our training programs, conferences and conduct research. Ultimately, barring entry into the country of citizens from a specific set of countries compromises the quality of our research, programming and intellectual activities. It also violates our shared values and integrity as an academic research institute.

CDDRL is currently in the process of reviewing the applications for our 2017 Draper Hills Summer Fellowship program and we want to assure everyone that each applicant will be equally considered, regardless of their country of origin.

In over a decade of working and training democracy activists from all over the world – including Muslim majority countries – we have developed friendships with colleagues who are working against great odds to build democratic institutions. The overwhelming majority is risking their lives to do so. These fellows together with students and researchers challenge our theories about democratic development and help inspire new projects and ideas to enrich our research agenda, not only for our center, but also for our broader institute - The Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.

We will continue to build our relationships equally with all countries around the world regardless of this new policy, and will stand in solidarity with those who are targeted by the adverse effects. The one lesson that recent events have conveyed is the resounding importance of the work we do to understand how countries become just, democratic and well-governed states.

“We found that when the government came to arrest or kill the leaders of the drug cartels . . . the structure of crime became disorganized and often made things worse because the leaders of the drug cartels had some capacity to control their armed soldiers. When the [federal police] removed them, they created these short-term spikes in violence that resulted from drug-trafficking gangs fighting each other for turf or for leadership of their criminal organization” says Beatriz Magaloni, Director of the Poverty and Governance Project a CDDRL/FSI Senior Fellow for Stanford Magazine. Read the whole article here.