New report on “Smart Global Health Policy” released

Mar 18th, 2010 3:01 PM UTC
By Helene Gayle

I’ve just returned from a listening and learning trip to Ghana and Mozambique with other board members, supporters, and staff of ONE. We met with regional leaders and activists, who shared their insights on promoting health, education, and economic growth. We saw their communities and met many people whose names and faces and successes and challenges inspire our work. The challenge will be to take those lessons and use them to inform and improve U.S. policy, to make it smarter, more effective, and more responsive to the needs we saw in Africa.

That is the task that has me today in Washington, D.C. In addition to my roles as a board member of ONE and CEO of CARE, I have spent the last ten months serving as co-chair of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy, along with Admiral William Fallon. This afternoon, we’re releasing our final report, a bipartisan document with clear, feasible recommendations for a long-term, strategic U.S. approach to global health.

The Final Report of the CSIS Commission on Smart Global Health Policy can be found here.

Signing the final report are twenty-five opinion leaders from diverse backgrounds in business, finance, Congress, media, philanthropy, government, and public health, who have come together to affirm the importance of global health and offer a pragmatic plan: to maintain our commitment to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria; to prioritize the health of women and children; to strengthen prevention and preparedness for health emergencies; to improve the U.S. government’s organization and coordination; and to bolster the achievements of multilateral institutions.

Although we believe it marks a significant step, we do not claim that our report has every answer to the world’s health problems. From the beginning, the Commission process has been a conversation, which we have taken from Washington, D.C., to California, North Carolina, Kenya, and over the internet. Please continue that conversation by reading the report and offering your feedback at smartglobalhealth.org.

TAGS: Global Health, ONE