The Global Health Initiative
GHI is the next chapter in the way the U.S. Government conducts global health activities, building on successful bipartisan leadership in global health and expanding their impact for sustainable results around the world. To achieve these goals, GHI is saving lives, promoting, security, and maximizing results.
Saving Lives
Fighting global disease reflects core American values and interests - saving lives and allowing more people to make a better world for their children. U.S. global health programs have already saved millions of lives, reducing the suffering and hardship caused by disease. Those programs make it possible to renew our emphasis on saving the lives of mothers, children and families from preventable, treatable diseases.
Promoting Security
Fighting global disease directly protects our health in the U.S. because infectious disease knows no border. Global health is also vital to our national security. Investing in the health of people in developing countries reduces the instability that fuels war and conflict, and drives the economic growth that strengthens families, communities and countries.
Maximizing Results
GHI ensures that agencies conducting global health initiatives combine their efforts to maximize results. GHI is making the most of every dollar to improve the health of the poorest families around the world, building on unprecedented American global health efforts to achieve broader and more sustainable outcomes while fostering innovation.
Although specific disease and system priorities and U.S. investments will vary by country, GHI implementation has four standard components:
- Collaborating for impact: Promote country ownership and align our investments with national plans, including improved coordination across U.S. agencies and with other donors, with the aim of making programs sustainable; leverage and help partner governments coordinate investments by other donors; and create and use systems for feedback about program successes and challenges to focus resources most effectively.
- Doing more of what works, ending what does not: Identify, take to scale and evaluate proven approaches in: family planning; nutrition; HIV/AIDS, malaria; tuberculosis; maternal, newborn, and child health; neglected tropical diseases; safe water; sanitation and hygiene; and other health programs to improve the health of women, newborns, children and their families and communities. Stop efforts that have not produced positive impacts on health outcomes.
- Building on and expanding existing country-owned platforms to foster stronger systems and sustainable results: Strengthen health systems' functions to ensure the quality and reach of short- and long-term health services and public health programs, and work with governments to ensure the sustainability of their health programming.
- Innovating for results: Identify, implement, and rigorously evaluate new approaches that reward efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability; focus particular attention on promising approaches to service delivery, community-based approaches, private-sector participation, performance incentives, costing of service delivery approaches, promotion of positive health behaviors and other strategies that have potential to increase value for money; increase tolerance for calculated risk-taking, including learning from unsuccessful efforts on the path to success.
GHI activities are already being implemented in the more than 80 countries where U.S. Government global health dollars are at work. Under GHI, the U.S. Government will coordinate with partner country governments to ensure that investments align with national priorities and build capacity. For FY 2011 and 2012, eight "GHI Plus" countries were selected: Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, and Rwanda. These countries will receive additional technical and management support to quickly implement GHI's approach, including integrated programs and investments across the spectrum of infectious diseases, maternal and child health, family planning and health systems activities. GHI Plus countries will provide enhanced opportunities to build upon existing public health programs; improve program performance; and work in close collaboration with partner governments, across U.S. Government agencies and with global partners.
To learn more about the Global Health Initiative, please visit www.ghi.gov.
Below please find resources about GHI and USAID's global health work
 Global Health Initiative Fact Sheet
 USAID's Global Health Bureau
 USAID Administrator Shah Delivers Major Global Health Address at the National Institutes of Health
Microbicide Gel Offers Protection Against HIV Transmission
U.S. and Russia Further Cooperation In The Fight Against Polio
Global Health on IMPACTblog
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