Can domestic financing solve the global health funding crisis?

The cuts by donors to global health programs, particularly the abrupt reduction in U.S. support since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, are creating an unprecedented crisis that dominated discussions at this year’s World Health Assembly.

“This is a pandemic-scale interruption for services and systems,” Bruce Aylward, an outgoing World Health Organization assistant director-general, explained in a speech last week at WHA. “But it’s not a virus which we can rapidly develop a vaccine, protect our populations, and get back to business.”

To help stem the crisis, Aylward pointed to the same conclusion being reached in panels and side events across WHA: “The time for domestic financing is indeed now, if not actually yesterday.”