World health leaders meet

Last week, more than 600 global health leaders from around the world gathered in Washington for the Acting on the Call forum to accelerate progress in ensuring every child survives and thrives. Co-hosted with the Governments of Ethiopia and India and in collaboration with UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the forum advanced the child and maternal survival agenda launched two years ago at the Call to Action.

We heard from leaders like Dr. Kesetebirhan Admasu of Ethiopia and Dr. Harsh Vardhan of India about how nations have stepped forward to lead this movement with energy, focus, and results-oriented action plans. With this leadership, we have been able to mobilize new resources, technical expertise, and robust measurement systems to end preventable child deaths. Committed to this global partnership, our Agency also released a new report detailing how we will align $2.9 billion in 24 priority countries to save up to half-a-million children. At a reception on the Hill, more than a dozen members of Congress from both sides of the aisle expressed their enthusiastic support for this mission, advancing our nation's proud legacy of bipartisan leadership in global health.

On Thursday, Raj Shah joined Global Citizen and 20,000 activists at a concert with Tiësto to celebrate progress on child survival and announce that we have doubled our commitment to $40 million this year to the Global Partnership for Education, which has already put 22 million children in school, including 10 million girls, over the past decade. Next year, we will work with Congress to increase funding to $50 million if we continue to see results. 

Thank you to our many partners from around the world, especially the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Blue Ribbon Panel led by Ray Chambers, who have come together to help achieve this great moral aspiration. We know that the American people take pride in our efforts when we forge strong partnerships, innovate constantly, and deliver meaningful results.