Not Too Late to Ride the Hype: USAID and NCDs

This is a joint post with Amanda Glassman.Everyone seems to be throwing their hat into the ring in the battle against non-communicable disease (NCD), from George W. Bush to Lance Armstrong. Now it appears USAID has entered the mix as well. Despite the agency’s absence from a CGD sponsored panel discussion last week, the USAID communications department is shifting into full gear—implying that they plan to join the fight after all.A recent post describes a couple of ways that USAID is poised to start combating NCD, namely through health systems strengthening and leveraging of Obama’s Global Health Initiative. However, it seems clear from the text that making these changes is going to involve some restructuring.

We have a tremendous opportunity to guide the transformation of integrated, equitable health systems in countries we serve. But it does involve adjusting the way we work and how we position ourselves in the world of development and in the world of global health.

We will have to wait until their roadmap for new NCD work is actually revealed, as the agency is just now going through a process of internal review and strategy development. But we are glad they already seem to be taking up one of our five low-cost recommendations—to exploit synergies between disease control and other development projects.  This type of innovative, low- or no-cost strategy might be one of few options for USAID and other implementing agencies to consider in today’s fiscally constrained environment.As Amanda Glassman blogged earlier this month, the WHO’s funding cuts are at odds with their new NCD mandate—so who’s to say what these efforts will look like coming from an agency like USAID facing similarly significant cuts. In the context of budget cuts, USAID will have to make the case that expanding their set of global health priorities makes sense.