CSIS Forum on Advancing U.S. Leadership in Global Health
March 10, 2011
The CSIS Global Health Policy Center (GHPC) convened key government officials and leading experts at a March 7 forum on U.S. leadership in global health.
The event opened with a screening of On the Ground with GHI in Kenya, a video that captures the opinions and perspectives of people trying to implement GHI while looking at some of the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
The GHPC also recently released two reports highlighting the Global Health Initiative in Kenya:
On the Ground with the Global Health Initiative
In December 2010, the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) organized a trip to Kenya to examine progress in implementing the U.S. government’s Global Health Initiative (GHI). This trip grew from a strong sense of the importance of examining how GHI was evolving on the ground in key partner countries, especially as debate sharpens in Washington around whether and how to preserve U.S. gains in global health.
Lessons from Kenya for the Global Health Initiative 
As implementation of GHI is moving ahead and country strategies are being developed, this is an important moment to bring forward lessons learned. A key example involves U.S. health programs in Kenya over the past five years, notably the APHIA program (the AIDS, Population and Health Integrated Assistance program), which developed an integrated program based on the PEPFAR platform. This paper finds that the APHIA programs in Kenya hold some important lessons that should help inform GHI implementation.
Following this video, there were four discussion panels that examined (1) bipartisanship in global health; (2) opportunities and challenges facing the Global Health Initiative (GHI); (3) the value of long-term investments in global health; and (4) the connection between global health and national security.
Panel 1: Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Amb. Mark Green of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition discussed the importance of bipartisanship to U.S. leadership in global health with CSIS president and CEO John J. Hamre.
Click here to listen to audio from Panel 1
Panel 2: Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE USA, discussed opportunities and challenges ahead for the GHI with panelists Lois Quam, GHI executive director; Kevin DeCock of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Amie Batson of USAID; and Ann Gavaghan with the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator.
Click here to listen to audio from Panel 2
Panel 3: Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Program, spoke about the Gates Foundation’s role as a bridge between the public and private sectors with CSIS’s Stephen Morrison, director of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center.
Click here to listen to audio from Panel 3
Panel 4: CSIS deputy director and senior adviser Lisa Carty examined the tension between the security rationale and the humanitarian imperative for global health with panelists Dr. Rajeev Venkayya of the Gates Foundation, Dr. Michael Merson of Duke University, and Dr. Karen Remley of the Virginia Department of Health.
Click here to listen to audio from Panel 4
