Strengthening Global Health Security

The United States highlighted its commitment to global health security in both the September 2021 and May 2022 Global COVID-19 Summits hosted by President Biden and like-minded partners, and through the COVID-19 Global Action Plan launched by the Secretary in February 2022 to end the acute phase of the pandemic.  Further, the 2023 National Biodefense Strategy (NBS) commits the United States to advance the development, enhancement, and maintenance of effective global health security capacities through sustained political, financial, and technical support in partner countries.

The Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy (GHSD) promotes global health security by encouraging foreign governments, the private sector, and civil society to take concrete steps to prevent the spread of infectious diseases and respond appropriately to outbreaks.   We advance these issues in a variety of multilateral organizations such as the WHO and through two prominent efforts, the multilateral Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) and bilateral Intensive Support Partnerships (ISP).

The United States takes an active leadership role in the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA ) to build a world safe and secure from infectious disease threats whether naturally occurring, accidentally released, or intentional. The GHSA is a multilateral and multi-sectoral initiative of nearly 70 countries and numerous private sector and non-governmental sector partners. Through GHSA, the United States encourages global partners to invest in basic health care systems and to strengthen health security across the intersection of human and animal health. We coordinate and facilitate the U.S. government’s implementation of its commitment to GHSA objectives and lead on U.S. diplomatic outreach to advance U.S. global health security objectives.

Since 2015, the United States has invested more than $2 billion in Global Health Security Intensive Support Partners (ISP) to work in partnership with host governments to address gaps and build national health security capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to health security threats.  Consistent with the updated NBS, the United States plans to provide direct support to at least 50 countries to achieve “Demonstrated Capacity” or comparable level in at least five technical areas critical to the country, by 2025, as measured by relevant health security assessments conducted within the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, such as the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and State Parties Self-Assessment Annual Reporting (SPAR).