NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Posted by Ambassador Eric Goosby:

I was honored to be asked by Secretary Clinton to lead the new Office of Global Health Diplomacy. I am proud to serve my country in this capacity while also remaining the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. I am equally delighted that a skilled and seasoned diplomat like Ambassador Leslie Rowe has agreed to join me in establishing the new Global Health Diplomacy Office in the State Department. We have seen first-hand in countries around the world that America’s investments in global health not only improve and save lives, they build stronger families, communities and nations and contribute to economic growth. And stronger and more stable nations abroad mean a stronger and more stable America.

Increasingly, our investments are also enabling countries to build the health systems they need to provide care for their own people. A goal of this Administration has been to ensure that we are not only investing in saving lives, but that we are helping partner countries eventually take on this responsibility themselves. Country ownership is a central objective of the U.S. government and it challenges our own government, partner and other donor countries alike to work tirelessly to create sustainable health systems that are eventually owned, managed and operated by the partner nation and their people. As Secretary Clinton said in June in Oslo, country ownership will take considerable time, patience, investment and persistence — but it is an end state that we can achieve together.