World Health Day

Today, April 7, marks 75 years since the World Health Organization’s Constitution cemented the principle that the health of all people is fundamental to the attainment of peace and security. 

This year’s World Health Day theme, “Health for All,” has never been more urgent, as we work to reverse the first global reduction in life expectancy since World War II. That decline was driven largely by COVID-19 – not just from the death toll of the virus, but also from the damage to health systems and the diversion of resources for essential services like immunizations and acute care, leading to a resurgence of diseases like tuberculosis and cholera we once had under control. 

Other factors contributed as well. Putin’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine degraded the global food supply chain and drove increases in malnutrition, which contributes to nearly half of all child deaths. And climate-driven catastrophes like the flooding in Pakistan, cyclone Freddy in southern Africa, and historic droughts in the Horn of Africa have further strained fragile health systems. As a result, we have experienced the first global reduction in life expectancy since World War II. 

USAID is helping the world recover in a few essential ways. 

First, we’re investing in global health security. We’ve recently expanded global investments with fifty countries to boost their capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. And our Outbreak Response team is supporting the U.S. government’s response to health crises like the current Marburg outbreaks in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania.

And second, to help countries rebuild strained health systems, we’re investing in the people who form the backbone of these systems: primary health workers. Primary health care workers provide the vast majority of services that individuals need across their lifespan and help their communities quickly respond to health emergencies. Yet by 2030, the shortage of global health care workers is projected to balloon to 10 million – with 50 percent of the shortage in Africa. 

That’s why USAID recently announced the launch of Primary Impact, an effort to accelerate  primary health care across seven focus countries in Africa and Asia. Right now, we’re working with our Missions, host governments, and partners to create tailored approaches that identify the most pressing needs to strengthen their primary care services and systems, with a focus on the health workforce. And over the next few years, we’ll work to address gaps and reduce silos in our own funding – hopefully in coordination with other funding partners around the world – to help countries meet these pressing needs. 

These efforts are part of  the White House’s Global Health Worker Initiative (HWI), announced in May 2022, to address the immense health worker shortage by helping countries – especially in Africa – hire, retain, and train the primary health workers they need.

Investments in health security and primary health systems are key to stymie what Assistant Administrator Atul Gawande recently called the reversal of human development. At USAID, we’ll continue to help drive these efforts. I remain grateful for your efforts to pursue that worthy goal: Health for All.