Washington, DC — Two prestigious U.S. policy groups are calling for health issues to have a higher priority in foreign policy and national security planning.
The recommendation comes from a study group launched by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Milbank Memorial Fund, a health policy organization. On Thursday, in a rare on-the-record session at its Washington DC office, the Council convened study group leaders to present their report, which argues that improving the health of people around the world enhances security, prosperity and democracy everywhere. "A foreign policy that gives higher priority to international health is good for the United States and good for the world," the report concludes.
Its author, Jordan Kassalow, said the world is in the midst of a health emergency, with TB, malaria, cholera, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Hepatitis C either resurgent or emerging. Deteriorating health indicators in nations from Russia to Congo are undermining political stability, and no border is protective against the global transmission of disease.
Pointing to what he called "a confluence of leadership and a dramatic leap in funding" for tackling health problems internationally, Kenneth Bernard, who advises Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) on health affairs, said that the United States has an unprecedented opportunity to make "an actual and real difference in the global health situation." But group co-chairs Princeton Lyman, who has been ambassador to Nigeria and South Africa, and Jo Ivey Boufford, former U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, acknowledged that daunting obstacles lie in the path of achieving that goal.
Just getting health issues onto the table when national leaders discuss foreign policy is a challenge, Boufford said. But she cited UN Secretary General Kofi Anan's appearance Thursday at the World Health Assembly in Geneva as an example of the growing convergence of health and political policy concerns.
International collaboration is essential, Lyman said, when facing problems of such magnitude. "We can't address these issues except multi-laterally." Global health issues, like global environmental issues, he said, require specialized expertise that demands pooled knowledge and resources.
A similar point was being made down the street at World Bank Headquarters, where participants in a seminar at the Bank's Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program were discussing cooperation between scientists and African traditional healers. Among the cases cited was the reduction of maternal mortality by half within three years in an experimental program in Uganda, which drew upon the accumulated wisdom of local healers. Women, in particular, said Monica Opole of Kenya, are a repository of knowledge systems that have sustained rural communities for generations.
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Bank official Nicolas Gorjestani said local communities in Africa are also open to learning from global partners and are quick to adopt new technologies in the process. The Indigenous Knowledge Program's website in Wolof, a West African language, gets 25% more traffic than the French site, he said.
Participants in both the Council and the Bank meetings warned that power politics can hamper the ability to attack health emergencies efficiently. A Washington Post column arguing that Kofi Anan's proposed AIDS war chest should be administered by the Bank was cited at the Council session as an example of the debate over control of resources.
Session chair Bernard said that political realities should be no excuse not to act. Whoever leads the effort, he said, the world community must "come up with a strategy that is well governed and moves money quickly. You've got to keep your eye on the prize, not on the process."
