Immediate action to support health workers

With their letters, the health ministers attached the Frontline Health Workers Coalition’s Policy Recommendations for Sustainable Health Workforce Teams to Respond to COVID-19, which call on governments, donors, and implementing partners to take actions to address the current needs of frontline health workers in low- and middle-income countries in their efforts to control the spread of COVID-19.

Read: Frontline Health Workers Coalition Releases Revised COVID-19 Policy Recommendations

The recommendations will also strengthen national health systems in the long-term by making them more resilient and ready to prevent, detect, and respond to future global health threats.

The ministers urged Congress to prioritize health workers and health systems in low- and middle-income countries in legislation they are considering, including emergency funding to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Likewise, IntraHealth International and the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, along with the Global Health Council, have been pushing for:

• At least $20 billion in emergency funding for programs funded through the International Affairs Account, including at least $11 billion for bilateral global health funding and the multilateral response to support a holistic global response to COVID-19.
• At least $500 million of global health funding to assist partner countries in addressing constraints on the frontline health workforce.
• At least 10% of global health funding to be allocated to assist partner countries in building and strengthening their health systems capacity to respond to COVID-19 and to provide quality essential health services to all.

US Congress went back in session last week. Members have still not passed a bill for supplemental COVID-19 funding. It is possible that a supplemental bill will not pass and that COVID-related funds could be integrated into regular appropriations for the upcoming fiscal year. 

We urge US Congress to reach a deal and provide at least $20 billion in emergency supplemental funding for #GlobalHealth and humanitarian programs. The #CostOfInaction is too great.

Learn more about how you can help.

A letter to Congress

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose unprecedented challenges for our world. We are thankful for the leadership of the U.S. government in supporting our countries and others around the globe to respond to the pandemic, including your committee’s work to prioritize global health and humanitarian assistance in the U.S. response. A united, collective response to the COVID-19 crisis is essential to progress in controlling this pandemic. 

Emergency support for frontline health workers and health systems in developing countries will be a critical determinant of how quickly the world can contain and ultimately eliminate the threat that COVID-19 poses to human health and the global economy.  

Investments in supporting countries’ health workforces and health systems are incredibly modest in comparison to the multi-trillion-dollar cost associated with the COVID-19 outbreak. These investments are a central pillar of the Global Health Security Agenda, an initiative for which U.S. leadership and international cooperation are vital. We are appreciative of your efforts to advance global health security legislation through the U.S. Congress and ask that you prioritize investments in the health workforce and health systems in these pieces of legislation. The attached recommendations from the Frontline Health Workers Coalition, an alliance of U.S.-based organizations–many of whom are partners in our countries’ delivery of health services, provide a framework for U.S. government support that we believe will allow the world to make significant progress against COVID-19 and in preventing future outbreaks. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need to accelerate global efforts to ensure that countries have the strong and resilient health workforces and health systems necessary to prevent and respond to global health threats. We applaud your leadership in supporting countries to advance their national agendas to accomplish these goals. Continued leadership from the U.S. government and international cooperation across countries are necessary to ensure that all people around the world are safer and more secure from global health threats. 

—Léonie Claudine Lougue, Minister of Health, Burkina Faso

—Michel Hamala Sidibe, Minister of Health and Social Affairs, Mali

IntraHealth International serves as the secretariat for the Frontline Health Workers Coalition. IntraHealth’s President Emeritus Pape Gaye liaised with both ministers’ offices to finalize the letters, and IntraHealth’s Advocacy team worked with our government affairs consultant, Kyle House Group, to deliver the African health ministers’ letters to offices of the chairs and ranking members of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the US Senate and House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittees:

• James E. Risch, Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
• Bob Menendez, Ranking Member, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
• Eliot Engel, Chairman, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Michael McCaul, Ranking Member, U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Foreign Affairs
• Lindsey Graham, Chairman; Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Committee on Appropriations
• Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member; Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Committee on Appropriations
• Nita Lowey, Chairwoman; Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Committee on Appropriations
• Hal Rogers, Ranking Member; Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs; Committee on Appropriations

Read more about IntraHealth’s work in Burkina Faso and Mali.