Institute of Medicine on America's Vital Interest in Global Health

by Mara Gordon · 2009-05-21 12:06:00 UTC
Topics:

(photo credit: Institute of Medicine)

About a decade ago, the Institute of Medicine released a report called America's Vital Interest in Global Health. The report, issued by an influential committee of policymakers and academics, called for a coordinated, sustained commitment from the United States on issues of global health - both for altruistic, humanitarian reasons and for America's own "enlightened self-interest."

Wednesday, the IOM released its 2009 update.

You can check out all 263 pages of the U.S. Commitment to Global Health here, and I highly recommend you do. As Ruth Levine, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and report committee member, put it on the CGD blog, here's the "Twitter" version:

"Thanks for a good decade; don't slack off now ($15b by 2012). Healthier world = happier, healthier us. It's more than AIDS. Play nice with others. Get your act together."

Get your act together, indeed. What's most striking about yesterday's report is not necessarily its (very sound and feasible) recommendations, but how much has changed since 1997 - and how much hasn't.

Levine and two of her fellow committee members discussed the IOM report in a webcast on Thursday sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and what I found most interesting was hearing their perspectives on what the global health landscape is like in 2009, with big changes like the Global Fund, Obama administration, and Gates Foundation.

"We now have a momentum, I believe, in global health, that we simply didn't have ten years ago. You see a remarkable change in attitude ... We're a globalized community," said Maria Freire, president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. "That translates directly into excitement on our campuses ... An enormous change in the philanthropic landscape ... Frankly, new ways of doing business."

But what hasn't changed?

The report calls for a $15 billion commitment to global health from the U.S. government by 2012.

Sounds like a lot, but according to Levine, it's comparable to what other developed nations give in aid for health.

And it's money that the U.S. has already committed to.

The U.S. government has a bad track record in both these areas. We give a substantially lower percentage of our GNP in foreign aid than most other developed countries. And we consistently fall short on the aid promises we do make.

We have the tools and the energy, in 2009, to make some serious strides in international health. Let's find the political will.

Mara Gordon has worked in public health in Tanzania and in Botswana. She originally hails from Washington, D.C.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Daily Darfur: Bated Breath Over Chad/Sudan Tension
NEXT STORY:
Campaign about Apple Factories in China Gains Wide and Diverse Support

COMMENTS (2)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.