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HAI and Other Advocates Call for Bold Targets and Funding for Global Health
October 29, 2009
In May 2009, President Obama announced a Global Health Initiative to provide $63 billion over 6 years toward a range of global health issues, from HIV to maternal and child health to health systems strengthening. A coalition of diverse global health organizations, including Health Alliance International, developed a report outlining the bold targets necessary to make real progress in all areas of global health, and what resources will be necessary.
The report, entitled “The Future of Global Health: Ingredients for a Bold and Effective U.S. Initiative,” states:
“The U.S. government can and should be a leader in global health on a larger scale—moving the world toward realization of the human right to health through smart, aggressive scale up of key health services that improve not only the health of people but also the economies of nations.
“This requires continued expansion of what is working and scale up of other priority efforts to levels sufficient to reap the synergies possible—ensuring systems of health that can care for people long term. We cannot address maternal and child health in Southern Africa, for example, without aggressively scaling up AIDS treatment to address the largest cause of deaths of mothers and, often, their nurses and midwives as well. Simultaneously, with smart, integrated and additional programming we can ensure that their communities are stronger because these same women do not die in child birth, their children do not die of pneumonia, and everyone receives core preventative care. As the GHI announcement highlights, a cross-cutting commitment to strengthening country health systems is essential for this to happen—and this will require increased investment in the health workforce to address bottlenecks that have impeded effective health programs for decades.”
The report provides specific targets and required funding levels for six areas that Obama included in his Global Health Initiative plans: HIV; tuberculosis, reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health; health systems and health workforce; and neglected tropical diseases.
Based on these targets, the report outlines some outcomes that the U.S. can achieve by 2014, including:
- HIV/AIDS treatment for 6 million people, and prevention of 12 million new cases;
- 40 million women receiving quality antenatal care;
- Additional 35 million births taking place in facilities that provide quality care for both normal and complicated births;
- At least 1 million new midwives, doctors, nurses and other health personnel trained.
The cost over 6 years is estimated at $95 billion, scaling up from current levels of around $8 billion per year to $22 billion by 2014. Specific targets and costs for each of the six areas are included in the report.
In addition to HAI, more than 25 other organizations were involved in developing these recommendations, including Health GAP, Partners In Health, Physicians for Human Rights, Global AIDS Alliance, Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), Pathfinder International, Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, RESULTS, and more.
The report was launched via a Congressional briefing on October 29, 2009, sponsored by the Congressional Global Health Caucus and six representatives, including Reps. Waxman (D-CA), McDermott (D-WA), Lee (D-CA).
The full document and other materials are available for download.
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