Briefing Papers Number 13, December 2011 | Page 13

The Global Health Initiative
Through the Global Health Initiative (GHI), the United
States is investing $63 billion over six years to help partner
countries improve health outcomes through strengthened
health systems. A particular focus is on bolstering the health
of women, newborns, and young children by combating infectious diseases and providing high-quality health services.
GHI aims to maximize the sustainable health impact of every dollar the United States invests.
How GHI Works:
• Serves as a whole-of-government umbrella to coordinate U.S. government global health efforts
• Seeks to create greater country-level capacity to manage
and operate programs
• Builds upon existing plans and programs rather than
duplicating efforts
• Enables greater coordination among U.S. government
programs and country, donor, and civil society efforts
in partner countries
• Uses existing negotiated agreements as a basis for future collaboration
• Emphasizes strengthening health systems as a component of disease- and issue-specific programs
Accelerating Impact—GHI Plus:
GHI is launching an intensified effort in a subset of up
to 20 “GHI Plus” countries. These countries, which provide
significant opportunities for impact, evaluation, and partnership with governments, will receive additional technical,
management, and financial resources to accelerate the imwww.bread.org

UN Photo

potential zones that will also address the food needs of
people in less-favored agricultural zones.
• Feed the Future programming through fiscal year 2010
improves on the U.S. commitments announced in fiscal
year 2009 by focusing in concrete ways on transformative, inclusive agricultural development in sub-Saharan
Africa. However, projected budget numbers for fiscal
year 2012 provide significant cause for concern, because
both Congress and the administration appear headed
toward an agreement to reduce this funding below the
levels in the administration’s initial request.
• With diminished resource levels, the U.S. government’s
capacity to work with African and G-8 partners to “deliver on sustained and accountable commitments, phasing-in
investments responsibly to ensure returns, using benchmarks and targets to measure progress toward shared
goals, and holding itself and other stakeholders publicly accountable for achieving results” may be reduced.
These capacities are critical to achieving the outcomes
needed for a more food-secure future.

plementation of GHI’s innovative approach. The approach
includes integrated programmatic interventions and investments across sectors (such as infectious disease, maternal and
child health, nutrition, family planning, and health systems
activities). GHI Plus countries will provide opportunities to
learn how to build on existing platforms and the best uses
of programmatic inputs to deliver results. They will work
in close collaboration with partner governments, a range
of U.S. government agencies, and global partners. Robust
monitoring and evaluation will be central, and the lessons
learned will be shared with other GHI countries to inform
future decision-making and ensure programmatic accountability. These activities will be carried out in close collaboration and coordination with country governments, local civil
society, international organizations, and other donors.20

The Global Agriculture and Food Security
Program (GAFSP)
GAFSP was established in April 2010, following commitments to support global food security made by leaders at the
G-8 summit in L’Aquila, Italy, in 2009. This fund, a multilateral mechanism with a small secretariat at the World Bank,
has received nearly $1 billion in pledges from six donors:
the United States, Spain, Ireland, Korea, the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation, Canada, and Australia.
This Fund aims to help solve the problem of underfunding for country and regional agriculture and food security
strategic investment plans. These plans are already being developed by countries and regional initiatives such as CAADP,
in consultation with donors as well as local stakeholders. Multilateral initiatives such as GAFSP can channel funds through
country-led efforts such as CAADP, and can play a critical role
by establishing more predictable streams of assistance for development goals, particularly those to help meet MDG 1, cutting hunger and extreme poverty in half by 2015.
Bread for the World Institute  13