Bureau for Global Health
The Development Challenge
The high level of worldwide political and humanitarian interest in
international health presents USAID with the opportunity to demonstrate continued leadership in
addressing some of the critical problems that plague not only developing nations but also increasingly
threaten the entire world. The health field enjoys unprecedented backing from both the Administration
and Congress as demonstrated by the President’s $15 billion Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (the Global Fund), and the President's Prevention of
Mother-to-Child Transmission Initiative (PMTCT). USAID, through its Bureau for Global Health (GH), is
well-positioned to use its expertise, experience and presence in global health to advance the President’s
agenda in HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases, Child Survival and Reproductive Health. The top
priorities include:
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- Under the leadership of the Global AIDS Coordinator, participate in implementing the USG's
expanded AIDS programs, including the continuum of prevention to care;
- Controlling the spread of re-emerging infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria; and
- Moving the fundamentals forward by employing new approaches and improving full-scale access
to family planning/reproductive health, child survival, and maternal health.
The USAID Program: GH’s three critical functions that provide the framework for programs are:
- Global leadership. GH has technical experts who manage a wide spectrum of diverse technical
projects; increase understanding of programs with stakeholders, including the U.S. public and
Congress; and nurture and galvanize stronger partnerships with the development community.
This achieves results by influencing the worldwide health agenda, thereby increasing the
likelihood of successful health programs and by encouraging the wider global community, both
public and private sectors, to adopt new technologies and approaches and to pursue USAID
priorities and goals.
- Research and innovation. GH is the Agency's repository for state-of-the-art thinking in
biomedical, social science, and operational research for health. GH has expanded the definition
of research to include its full application and increased the emphasis on scaling-up proven highimpact
interventions.
- Technical support to the field. GH follows a field-driven and field-centered approach to technical
support to the field, is a pioneer in results monitoring, and leads global work in the development of
program evaluation tools and trend analysis for global health. GH programs are flexible and can
respond promptly to field needs, such as the rapid opening and closing of bilateral programs or
emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes and conflicts.
GH conducts these three functions in order to achieve its five strategic objectives, which are:
- Increased use of improved, effective and sustainable responses to reduce HIV transmission and
to mitigate the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic;
- Increased use of effective interventions to reduce the threat of infectious diseases of major public
health importance;
- Increased use of key child health and nutrition interventions;
- Increased use of key maternal health and nutrition interventions; and
- Voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs advanced and supported worldwide.
Other Program Elements: USAID works with a range of private, public and international partners to
implement its programs. GH’s greatest investment in the private sector has been in commercial market
development; health technologies, social marketing services, products, and materials; and workplace
delivery of basic health services. The role of the U.S. private sector has grown dramatically in recent
years, with the top 10 private U.S. foundations now exceeding USG spending in the area of international
health. GH has actively sought new ways of doing business with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)
and private sector organizations, mainstreaming Global Development Alliance (GDA)-type alliances and
reaching out to faith-based organizations (FBOs). Partnerships with the Jane Goodall Institute, Coca
Cola, Exxon-Mobil and other corporations demonstrate the GH's significant work with the private sector.
In FY 2003 alone, GH supported a number of public-private partnerships leveraging more than $600
million in private sector resources, excluding the Global Fund. In addition, the Global Fund alone
leveraged $940 million in public and private sector resources.
GH centrally-funded AIDS activities will be implemented with a deliberate effort to establish the new
partners needed to meet the challenging goals of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR). In order to provide for the additional efforts required to start bringing in new partners,
including faith-based organizations, for HIV/AIDS work, GH proposes to establish a fund for new USG
partners using a portion of FY 04 HIV/AIDS funds. This will enable these new partners to be much
stronger and more experienced by the end of PEPFAR programming in FY 08.
GH has sought to better integrate and balance immediate disease-driven interventions with capacity and
systems building interventions. Implementing the President’s initiative on AIDS, with the additional
funding and mandate provided under the Emergency Plan, USAID is working under the leadership of the
Global AIDS Coordinator and in close collaboration with other U.S. Government agencies, particularly the
Departments of State and Health and Human Services (HHS).
GH has increased our involvement in complex global emergencies. GH has helped identify and control
endemic and epidemic diseases, ensure adequate immunization coverage, prevent decline of nutritional
status in vulnerable populations, and improve basic water and sanitation in these settings. By combining
forces with the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) and regional
bureaus in such countries as Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo, Sudan, Mozambique, and South Africa.
In FY 2003, USAID took a leading role in developing a consensus for and the establishment of a global
child survival partnership with UNICEF, World Bank, Gates Foundation and others that will accelerate the
implementation of high impact child health interventions in 42 targeted countries.
Other Donors: USAID is leading a global collaboration among donors and NGOs to increase the
awareness of and resources available for contraceptive and condom procurement and distribution. This
effort improves the security of supplies of reproductive health commodities and helps meet demand for
quality family planning and reproductive health services in developing countries.
USAID will continue to support the Global AIDS Coordinator in the development and implementation of
the Global Fund. USAID will continue to use its resources to dramatically increase available resources
from the Fund to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases and to rapidly direct those resources
to effective prevention, care and treatment programs in the areas most urgently in need of assistance.
Also, USAID played a key role in the UN Special Session on Children and the Summit on Sustainable
Development on Water, demonstrating its global leadership and commitment to international
collaboration.
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