Humanosphere: Op-Ed: Is global health industry too self-serving in the fight against AIDS?
Scott Barnhart, professor of medicine and global health, and Joanna Diallo, senior program manager in the department of global health, both at the University of Washington, Seattle, discuss a “self-serving model of development,” in which much of the funding meant to help people in low- and middle-income nations remains in U.S. organizations and agencies. They describe seven steps the global health community can take over the next decade to smooth the “unequal power relationship between wealthy donor and economically poor recipient countries,” and conclude, “We must not be complacent in our own self-interest by allowing these institutions to remain weak, countries to stay poor and HIV funding to be insufficient to serve both masters. Washington state should take the lead to truly shift development to be an economic engine and driver for better health in low-income countries” (12/1).