Attention to global health by governments, policymakers, media, business leaders, and other institutions has increased markedly in recent decades. Since 2000, donor funding to address health challenges in low- and middle-income countries has grown substantially, new institutions and global goals have been established, and a burgeoning community of stakeholders has emerged around global health.
The U.S. government has long supported overseas health programs as an element of foreign aid and development assistance. In recent years, these programs have grown in size and prominence. In particular, under President Bush, the U.S. government initiated several large bilateral global health foreign assistance programs, most notably, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), as well as the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI), and helped create and support the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund). The U.S. government is the largest funder and implementer of global health programs worldwide, even as U.S. funding for global health has plateaued in recent years in the wake of the financial crisis and continuing fiscal constraint.
Under the Obama administration, support for the main pillars of the U.S. global health effort – from PEPFAR to PMI to the Global Fund – has continued, and the Administration has also focused more attention and funding on other global health programs, including maternal and child health, neglected tropical diseases, and family planning and reproductive health, among others. Most recently, the Administration and Congress have enhanced the U.S. response to emerging infectious diseases following the major outbreak of Ebola that began in West Africa in 2014.
– The Kaiser Family Foundation