I recently traveled to Senegal, Ethiopia, and Mozambique to visit a wide range of global health programs supported by USAID and other U.S. Government Agencies including the Centers for Disease Control, Department of Defense, and the Peace Corps.
My colleague, Zeke Emanuel, from the White House Office of Management and Budget, blogged extensively during this two-week trip about President Obama’s Global Health Initiative. This whole-of-government effort encourages a more integrated approach to global health — building upon historic efforts under the Bush Administration through PEPFAR and PMI with a renewed focus on child and maternal health, TB and other diseases. It also strengthens health systems to ultimately save more lives.
Is funding for global health a never-ending waste of money in which billions are spent but nothing gets better? Or are we being selfish and grossly unethical, because we are unwilling to spend a few hundred dollars more per year in order to save a life of a poor person half way around the world?
These are tough questions, and Zeke addresses them in his first blog entry, now featured at The New Republic.
