Financing Global Health to Reduce Donor Dependency

Editors' Note

Next week, governments will meet at the UN General Assembly in New York City to reflect on 80 years of the United Nations and chart a path for responsive multilateralism. African leaders are preparing for renewed attention to the continent, particularly on its progress toward sustainable development and international support. Those meetings coincide with heightened interest in Africa's economic growth and this year's slash in global development aid.

To kick-start a conversation on how Africa could navigate a new financial era in global health, Vital Strategies President and CEO Mary-Ann Etiebet describes how health taxes—levies on products that cause disease—could provide governments with new money streams to improve fiscal and population health.

Next, Elton John AIDS Foundation Global CEO Anne Aslett and Chris Collins, the president and CEO of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, explain methods for increasing African domestic investment in HIV programs, embedding HIV services into health-care systems, and investing in new, long-lasting therapies.

Looking at the local level, Opportunity International's Head of Global Health Annie Wang continues the conversation by exploring how low- or middle-income countries (LMICs) in Africa and South Asia can replace the funds lost from aid cuts through microfinance institutions (MFIs). She notes that, in a time when trust in traditional banks and institutions is eroding, MFIs are combining financial services with health education to reach marginalized populations and improve health outcomes.

Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor