Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Multiplier for U.S. Policy: The Global Fund and HER (HIV Epidemic Response)
Mark P. Lagon, chief policy officer at Friends, and Annika Holkeboer, student at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University and former policy intern at Friends, discuss the unveiling of the HER (HIV Epidemic Response) initiative, an “effort to mobilize private sector engagement to empower women and girls in the fight against HIV.” The authors write, “[T]he HER initiative is important for numerous reasons: It focuses on a particularly vulnerable, yet vital, demographic group that is critical to controlling HIV, and important for sustainable economic development — women and girls. HER brings more private sector donors and partners to the table … All the more, it vividly demonstrates the Global Fund’s value for money to the U.S. — multiplying the impact of U.S. leadership to successfully defeat the major epidemics of our time and help transition affected countries from international aid to full domestic ownership of their disease responses” (2/26).