Examining the Role of Ambassador for Global Health Diplomacy

In this post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Amanda Glassman, a senior fellow and director of global health policy at CGD, and Jenny Ottenhoff, a policy outreach associate at the center, discuss the closure of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) office and the creation of the Office of Global Health Diplomacy at the State Department, to be "led by an ambassador responsible for 'champion[ing] the priorities and policies of the GHI in the diplomatic arena,'" according to the announcement. They list "a few roles a global health ambassador could play that may prove a 'value add' to the U.S. global health architecture," and state, "The new ambassador will be entering the position with the deck stacked again them and will need to address many of the institutional constraints of the late GHI office, namely lack of formal budgetary, policy or legal leverage over the many U.S. agencies working in global health." Noting a recent brief by the Kaiser Family Foundation says an ambassador for global health diplomacy could raise the profile of and provide new opportunities for addressing global health, they conclude, "[I]n an ever challenging political and fiscal environment, that may be exactly what U.S. global health programs need" (9/20).