Global Health Initiative

In 2009, President Obama announced the Global Health Initiative (GHI), a new approach to global health that focuses on addressing critical concerns including family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases. The GHI will guide U.S. policy on global health issues for the near and extended future. Advocates must strongly articulate the need for U.S. policy to embrace principles of the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and its comprehensive sexual and reproductive health frame to ensure that the GHI truly promotes the health needs of all.

Two of the core principles that officials have designed to guide the GHI are the integration and coordination of the delivery of health interventions  and a woman-centered approach. These two principles are critical to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Integration supports sexual and reproductive health by encouraging a holistic approach to patient care and more effectively addressing the interrelated sexual and reproductive health issues that individuals face. A woman-centered approach to health is a human rights-based approach that seeks to ensure that every individual has access to basic health, education and other social services, including sexual and reproductive health.

See CHANGE's Policy Brief A Woman-Centered Approach to the U.S. Global Health Initiative

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Source35In real terms, U.S. support for family planning is at the same level now as it was 35 years ago.

Source0Emergency contraception (EC) is not distributed by USAID.