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Improving people's health

>> Foreign Aid in the National Interest >> Overview >> Improving people's health

Acknowledgements Foreword Overview: Promoting Freedom, Security and Opportunity Chapter 1: Promoting Democratic Governance Chapter 2: Driving Economic Growth Chapter 3: Improving People's Health Chapter 4: Mitigating and Managing Conflict Chapter 5: Providing Humanitarian Aid Chapter 6: The Full Measure of Foreign Aid Last updated: 28     Jump to Overview Sections: >> 50 years of development gains >> Promoting democratic governance >> Driving economic growth >> Improving people's health >> Mitigating and managing conflict >> Providing humanitarian assistance >> The full measure of U.S. development assistance-official and private >> Notes >> Background papers >> References What do these changes mean for foreign assistance? Health interventions must encompass a wide range of new approaches and actors. Dealing with local financing institutions, employer benefit plans, and telecommunication networks may be just as important as ministries of health. Increasing both the availability and quality of food will remain critical, but new approaches, such as biofortification of staple crops to enhance their micronutrient content, need to be examined. The increase in noncommunicable diseases will be permanent, making health care more expensive. Donors and developing countries must make complementary investments involving all parties public and private with vested interests in a country’s long-term health status, ultimately aiming for self-reliance. Given the rapid and diverse changes in many developing countries, donors must be flexible. Efforts to accelerate the progress of countries suffering from traditional health and disease problems must be combined with programs to help other countries address new challenges. Despite 40 years of effort, many countries have extremely high infant mortality and low life expectancy, now affected by high HIV/AIDS rates suggesting a need to carefully evaluate past public health investments, develop new approaches, and better define the role of the private sector. Why act on these changes? The impact of the changing disease profile on the economies of these countries, the rising expectations of newly democratic populations for better health care, the expertise and experience of U.S. medical and management organizations to help solve these problems all argue for transforming U.S. global health portfolios into dynamic investments benefiting everyone. For both old problems and new, the central concern will be self-reliance so that economic progress can be tied to progress in public health. A central concern of self-reliance will be financial diversity including private financing, which already accounts for more than half of health resources in developing countries. Political commitment is also key. For many developing countries, self-reliance in traditional areas such as immunizations is not a matter of inadequate resources but of political will, commitment, and management. page 3

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