Decisions, Decisions: How to Allocate U.S. Global Health Dollars

Washington, DC has been buzzing with talks of budgets, spending, and the deficit. During a time of spending cuts, the U.S. Global Health Initiative (GHI) is, so far, moving ahead with moderate increases in its overall budget. GHI was first introduced in FY2009 with a budget of $8.4 billion. In FY2010, Congress bumped GHI funding up to $8.8 billion and in FY2011, the White House requested $9.6 billion for the program. However, House and Senate appropriators are currently eyeing cuts across the board, some of which may target global health.Given the variety of priorities that merit attention, how would you allocate U.S. spending among global health objectives? What criteria would you use to guide funding decisions? Should more money go to HIV/AIDS or nutrition? To vaccination or TB?We developed a new online tool that allows you to assign your own percent allocations to nine priority areas in GHI. You can also compare your allocations to the White House’s FY2011 request and to an average generated from others users.Happy budgeting!