How can the next U.S. presidential administration and Congress continue the country’s leadership of global health efforts amid frayed bipartisanship and a struggling economy?
Three U.S. organizations attempt to answer this question in a declaration that proposes four priorities for U.S. engagement in global health efforts in the coming years.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies, CARE and World Affairs Council of Atlanta adopted the so-called Atlanta Declaration at the end of a daylong conference in Atlanta, USA.
The conference featured heads of the three organizations and members of the U.S. health and business communities like Thomas Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Greg Allgood of Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. Also present were government officials like Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, who discussed ways to draw public support for foreign aid programs.
Here are the four priorities the declaration recommends the United States adopt as part of its efforts to improve the health situation in developing countries:
Make direct investments in the national health systems of recipient developing countries.
Provide stronger support for better-managed and better-financed multilateral organizations like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, UNICEF, World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
Convince emerging powers to harness their full potential to support the fight against maternal and child mortality, infectious diseases and other pressing global health issues.
Integrate water, sanitation and hygiene in all aspects of U.S. global health policy.
The United States will hold presidential elections on Nov. 6, with incumbent President Barack Obama likely to face former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney of the Republican Party for the country’s top government office.
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