Also posted at DipNote, the U.S. Department of State Official Blog
Ambassador Eric Goosby serves as U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator.
During today’s opening of the PEPFAR annual meeting, we focused on PEPFAR’s role in supporting countries to establish a “continuum of response.” Through this continuum, countries can provide a comprehensive system of care and support to meets their health needs to their people. As our Global Health Initiative (GHI) recognizes, the continuum is needed not only for particular diseases such as HIV, but for the whole range of public health issues.
At the individual level, a continuum of response means that the government orchestrates a health system that identifies populations at risk and follows them, addressing through all their needs through their lifespan — for prevention, and then for care and treatment if they become infected. And it means following them through all their non-HIV needs as well.
The continuum of response is anchored in the principle of country ownership. PEPFAR is working to support governments in orchestrating national efforts to address the health needs of their citizens, and enabling the strong participation of civil society in those efforts. Deputy Secretary of State Tom Nides affirmed the importance of country ownership in the U.S. foreign policy portfolio. And I was fortunate enough to join discussion on global health diplomacy and leadership with CDC Director Tom Frieden, USAID Administrator Raj Shah, and GHI Executive Director Lois Quam to focus on different dimensions of U.S. global health strategic priorities.
Thanks in part to the mechanism of PEPFAR Partnership Frameworks, I believe we are at the precipice of real country ownership of the fight against HIV/AIDS in a growing number of countries. Partnership Frameworks provide a 5-year joint strategic framework for cooperation among the U.S. Government, the partner government, and others to combat HIV/AIDS in the partner country. With our support, countries are putting structures in place that position them to meet not only HIV/AIDS needs, but whatever future public health challenges they face. To date, U.S. Chiefs of Mission and 21 partner governments have signed Frameworks, with more to follow. Today, we were welcomed by the South Africa Minister of Health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi, whose government recently signed a Framework with the United States. Turning a decisive page, the South African Government has assumed increasing leadership, including a dramatically heightened financial contribution and an intention to approach full financial responsibility for its program by 2016.
A continuum of response requires both commitment and capacity on the part of the government. And today, I was pleased to have the opportunity to affirm the leadership role of the U.S. Ambassador in working with our partnership governments. Our Chiefs of Mission are leading their teams to make sure that Partnership Framework commitments are fleshed out in Implementation Plans, which enable real accountability. In terms of the capacity required to establish ownership, tomorrow we will hear from field teams about their hard work to develop capacity at the country level. The locally employed staff of PEPFAR is at the forefront of our efforts on country ownership, focusing on building the technical and managerial capacity of partner nations. This capacity is a key contribution to our effort to foster country ownership and create a continuum of response. All of this is critical to saving lives.
