The United States’ new global health strategy will work to position American companies to lead in African markets — home to the world’s fastest growing populations — with African governments serving as customers of American products. That’s according to Jeff Graham, senior bureau official for the State Department’s Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy. In this vision, the role of donors is to support innovation, he said, as opposed to focusing on responding to emergencies.
“American companies are largely absent from the world’s fastest growing consumer market,” Graham said in a speech on Tuesday at the Global Health Supply Chain Summit in Kigali.
Graham is part of a team of roving State Department officials traveling across the African continent to negotiate bilateral agreements with countries as part of the new ‘America First’ global health strategy.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
