Extracts and a comment from me below.
https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/news/statement-by-dr-rajiv-j-shah-...
'Over the last several years, wealthy countries, including the United States, have significantly reduced their commitments to feed the hungry, cure the sick, and lift up the most vulnerable people around the world. With these actions, governments are undermining an eight-decade global consensus that the world can and should cooperate to advance human dignity — for its own sake and for the sake of global security and prosperity. Now, just over a year since the United States announced it would eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development, new data illustrates the profound human toll of recent decisions by the United States and other countries.
'A peer-reviewed study, published this week in The Lancet Global Health, finds that in a severe, worst-case scenario in which countries continue cutting lifesaving assistance, more than 22 million people could die by 2030, including more than 5 million children under the age of five...
'In this moment, action will save lives. The question before us is whether we will allow a global retreat to define the future or whether we will reimagine and strengthen our collective humanitarian commitment to those in need. Recent polling makes clear how people around the world feel: they believe that international cooperation, when undertaken effectively, can improve their own lives while helping others. The Rockefeller Foundation agrees. Through our Build the Shared Future Initiative, we are committed to working with anyone interested in building more modern, effective, and sustainable mechanisms of global cooperation that can mobilize investment, earn and keep public trust, and deliver measurable, enduring results for the world’s most vulnerable people.'
COMMENT (NPW): As global health leaders have said previously to an unresponsive Gates Foundation: "The challenge is to ensure that everyone in the world can have access to clean, clear [health] knowledge." Pang T et al. The Lancet 2006 https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(06)68050-1/abstract This call is even more urgent now because of the impact of social media, manufactured distrust in authority, and misinformation. We call on the Rockefeller Foundation to explicitly champion the goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information: a world where every person will have access to the reliable healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of others.
Do any HIFA members have a personal contact at the Rockefeller Foundation? If so, please let me know and we can plan a personal approach.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org