20 October 2025
Vital Strategies is a leading global public health organization and a trusted partner of governments and civil society organizations around the world.
Vital Strategies helps governments strengthen their public health systems to contend with the most important and difficult health challenges. They design solutions that can scale rapidly and improve the lives of millions of people. Their mission is to work in partnership to reimagine evidence-based, locally driven policies and practices to advance public health.
A public health system is the often-invisible web of protections that help them lead long, productive and healthy lives. It is regulations that keep toxins out of their food and pollutants out of the air they breathe. It is data that informs decisions about health policy, and systems that empower people to make healthier choices.
THEIR STORY
Vital Strategies started in a hazy café in 2003 in New Delhi, India, where their founders, including current President and CEO José Luis Castro, met and agreed to take on a complex challenge: Working towards a future where lifesaving drugs were no longer stuck on loading docks, or where critical data sat unexamined while policies stalled on the public agenda.
They were all too aware that millions of people, especially in low- and middle-income countries, were dying from entirely preventable causes—tobacco alone took the lives of nearly seven million annually.
The organization they envisioned would be driven by the belief that every person deserves to be protected by a strong public health system. It would ground its work in scientific evidence and best-practice approaches, form strong working partnerships with governments and civil society groups, and act with a speed that matched the urgency of the challenge.
In January 2016, their vision was fully realized. Formed out of a merger between World Lung Foundation and The Union, North America, Vital Strategies was launched to bridge the gap between pressing public health needs and effective solutions. Whether they are addressing the impact of urban air pollution or overdose prevention, they build agile teams of experts, strategists and researchers to advance scalable, sustainable policies and ultimately save lives.
