Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and British politician Alan Donnelly painted a stark picture of a global health system in need of reform in a candid discussion at the Devex Impact House on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.
The current crisis is multifaceted. International development assistance is dramatically declining, with donor countries redirecting funds from health to defense and security. Health is also facing even more politicization, with social media amplifying misinformation and eroding trust in critical health interventions such as vaccinations. The dramatic shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development also sent shock waves to the countries reliant on its support for their health programs.
“At some point, official development assistance was always going to tail off as economies converged. But what has happened has been so sudden … so the transition is pretty, pretty rough. And at the country level, it will force a reexamination of how health systems are organized,” Clark said, who added she’s aware of several countries now taking a “good hard look” at where they can achieve more efficiencies.
About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
