CSIS TO LAUNCH CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTH POLICY

The new CSIS Center for Global Health Policy has been made possible by a three-year, $6.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is the single largest foundation grant CSIS has received in its history, and is the successor to three previous Gates Foundation grants that supported the highly successful CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS from 2001 through the end of this summer.

Designed to bridge the foreign policy and public health communities, the CSIS Center for Global Health Policy will define a long-term strategic plan for expanded U.S. engagement in global public health; cultivate new high-level American champions and create new mechanisms to better inform policymakers of important health discoveries; address the growing security dimensions to global public health; and build external support – from within Africa, Europe, China, Russia, India, the Middle East and Americas – for a strategic approach and for improving the governance of global health.

“America is a generous nation and where America provides assistance during times of human tragedy, it changes attitudes about us,” said John J. Hamre, CSIS President and CEO. “It reflects the best of America, and it advances well-being around the world. The Center for Global Health Policy will greatly further these honorable ideals.”

“Recent successes in addressing HIV/AIDS and malaria demonstrate the critical role of informed public policy in improving global health,” said Joe Cerrell, Director of Global Health Policy and Advocacy at the Gates Foundation. “Funding is important, but it has to be directed wisely in order to have a real and lasting impact. The new CSIS Center will help develop a comprehensive global health strategy that uses the financial, technical, and political resources of the U.S. as effectively as possible.”

The Center will be led by J. Stephen Morrison, who will serve as its founding director. Morrison previously held the position of director of the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS and helped advance U.S. leadership on HIV/AIDS on a bipartisan basis. He has also served as director of the CSIS Africa Program.

“There is a major opportunity for the United States to take leadership on the issue of global public health and a major opportunity for the United States to help itself by doing good around the world,” said Morrison. “I am looking forward to working with the Gates Foundation to put the CSIS Center for Global Health Policy at the forefront of that effort.”