Center for Global Development: U.K. Elections: What’s News on Global Health So Far?
Amanda Glassman, executive vice president and senior fellow; Kalipso Chalkidou, director of global health policy and senior fellow; and Nurilign Ahmed, senior policy analyst, all with the Center for Global Development, examine U.K. political party manifestos for mentions of official development assistance (ODA) and global health in advance of the U.K. election next week. The authors write, “Despite the commitment to 0.7 percent of GDP, what we did not see is an intention (and some idea of the ‘how’) to boost impact of the U.K. ODA budget in reducing poverty and improving health and eradicating disease. … The recent international push on health systems strengthening and universal health coverage do not appear anywhere outside of domestic policies for the NHS, and perhaps more concerningly, there is little mention of the global issues like pandemic threats and antibiotic resistance that require global and concerted efforts — even treaties as well as serious investment — to enable a more effective response than that seen to date” (12/6).