Obama’s Global Health Initiative: What Will It Look Like?
Last May, President Obama announced a new Global Health Initiative: 6 years, $63 billion, combining PEPFAR and a host of other global health programs into one cohesive strategy.
In October, we worked with a number of other organizations to set out a bolder vision for the Global Health Initiative, or GHI, which included specific treatment and prevention targets for a variety of diseases as well as health workforce goals. It also included a bigger investment: $95 billion.
Still, details about the GHI have been sparse. In January 2010, the administration released an implementation plan and consultation document designed to give some more information about the Initiative. The principles of the GHI model, as laid out in the document, are:
- Woman- and girl-centered approach
- Coordination, collaboration and integration at all levels
- Strengthening and leveraging of other partnerships and efforts
- Country ownership and country-led planning
- Learning and accountability, including operations research and monitoring and evaluation
From our perspective, the GHI includes some important approaches, including a focus on health systems strengthening and country ownership of this work. We also support the increased emphasis on maternal and child health.
On the con side, some programs, such as PEPFAR, will essentially receive no increases ("flat funding"), which will make continuing to expand services and access to treatment difficult after accounting for inflation. For more about the budget, the Kaiser Family Foundation has some good materials on GHI funding.
While offering some detail about the GHI -- such as the process for 20 or so "GHI Plus" countries that will receive additional funding -- many details are still lacking. It's unclear what entity will administer the GHI, how existing programs such as the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) and PEPFAR and others will be folded in to GHI plans and management, and how many new health workers the GHI will actually support. (Right now it calls for 140,000, which were allocated in the PEPFAR reauthorization in 2008, but more will be needed to reach the other goals of the GHI.)
The Administration invited feedback on the document to be sent through the State Department, due on February 22nd. You can read our submitted comments here.
Do you have thoughts about the GHI, or did you provide your own feedback to the administration? We would love to hear about it.
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