Aspen Global Health Roundtable: Straight Talk: A Conversation about Tough Questions in Global Health
The Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health (MLI) hosted The Aspen Institute’s Global Health Roundtable Series event, “Straight Talk: A Conversation about Tough Questions in Global Health,” on March 21st at noon. The roundtable featured MLI collaborator Hon. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Ethiopia’s Federal Ministry of Health. Minister Tedros, the recipient of the 2011 Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Humanitarian Award, has made significant improvements in the quality of, and access to, health services, particularly for maternal care including family planning in Ethiopia. His major achievements include the training of 30,000 health extension workers to increase access to health care for rural populations and ramping up initiatives to fight HIV/AIDS that resulted in a drop in the HIV prevalence among 15-49 year olds from 6.6 percent in 2002 to 2.3 percent in 2009.
Minister Tedros was joined at the roundtable by Amie Batson, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID, and Amb. Mark Dybul, Co-director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and Former U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. The lunchtime discussion, moderated by MLI Senior Advisor John Donnelly, highlighted the challenges of advancing progress and sustaining achievements in the rapidly growing global health area, including:
– How are today’s government budget crises affecting global health, from remote villages to the Global Fund?
– Given the concern worldwide about women’s health and maternal mortality, what are the best strategies for US Government assistance?
– What can be done accelerate country ownership of health programs?
– Why are Ethiopia successes in health care the exception in the developing world, not the rule?
Check out a recap of the event on MLI’s Leading Global Health blog!