On 16 August 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rolled out the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI).

The United States have decided to cut aid to fight specific diseases, rechanneling it to beef up health systems. Twenty countries stand to benefit from the initiave, 8 of which have already been selected (Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal and Rwanda).

« The initiative’s efforts focus on building stronger and sustainable
health systems; improving metrics, monitoring and evaluation; promoting
research and innovation; and strengthening and leveraging multilateral
organizations, global health partnerships and private-sector engagement. »

The GHI promoted by Clinton is pursuant to the Smart Power initiative, crafted by the CSIS Commission chaired by Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye in 2007. The underlying idea is that this type of expensive is the cheapest means for the the United States to revamp their image abroad.

In May 2009, President Barack Obama has asked Congress for 8,6 billion dollars to fund this initiative during fiscal year 2010. His plan contemplated an overall budget of 63 billion dollars over 6 years. On 10 March 2010, Hillary Clinton and the philanthropist Bill Gates made a detailed presentation of the GHI before the Senate.

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Documents:

– A Smarter, More Secure America, Report of the CSIS Commission on Smart Power, by Craig Cohen, Joseph S. Nye, Richard Armitage [downlowdable here].

– Smart Global Health Policy, Report presented by Admiral Wiiliam Fallon and Helene Gayle (CSIS, 2010), [downlowdable here].

– The U.S. Global Health Initiative, by Hillary Clinton, Voltaire Network, 16 August 2010.