Investing in Health: What Is the Role of Health Aid?

Featuring

Lawrence H. Summers
Charles W. Eliot University Professor, Harvard University Chair, Board of Directors, Center for Global Development

Dean Jamison
Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Francisco

Host

Amanda Glassman
Vice President for Programs and Director of Global Health Policy, Center for Global Development

The slow global response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa suggests that important gaps exist in donor financing for key global functions, such as strengthening of outbreak preparedness and support for research and development (R&D) to fight the diseases of poverty. What do we know about how much health aid is devoted to such global functions?

CGD will host Lawrence H. Summers and Dean Jamison as they discuss a novel, policy-oriented approach to categorizing donor funding for health. This new approach, which combines official development assistance (ODA) for health with additional donor spending on R&D for diseases of poverty, reveals what functions aid is currently serving and where gaps may lie in the financing of key global functions in health.

After remarks, speakers will discuss the implications of these gaps for future donor financing, how a “grand convergence” in health can be achieved by 2035 and how to prevent future global health crises.