The Exemplar Newsletter: April 2024

The following is an excerpt from the monthly newsletter from Exemplars in Global Health, a global coalition of partners on a mission to identify positive health outliers, analyze what makes countries successful, and disseminate core lessons so they can be adapted in comparable settings.

Read on to hear from Niranjan Bose, Health and Life Sciences Managing Director at Gates Ventures. You can also subscribe to The Exemplar to hear more from the program on a monthly basis.

Health for all through every stage of life

Around the world, the global health community is starting to prepare for the 77th edition of the World Health Assembly taking place next month. This year’s theme, “All for Health, Health for All,” is especially important for the Exemplars in Global Health community. The theme is an embodiment of the needs and rights that follow the lifecycle of every human, no matter who they are, or where they live.

For most comprehensive health care systems, primary health care (PHC) provides an integral foundation on which to build. In fact, PHC can meet up to 90% of a person’s health care needs over the course of their lifetime. And by scaling up access to PHC interventions in low- and middle-income countries, as many as 60 million deaths could be averted by 2030.

Strong, comprehensive health care systems also play a particularly important role in positive health outcomes for women and girls. Adolescent sexual and reproductive health services including interventions like family planning and HPV vaccines, for example, set a critical foundation for young people’s health for the rest of their lives. Voluntary modern contraceptive use among all women of reproductive age averted 135 million unintended pregnancies and 28 million unsafe abortions from July 2020 to July 2021 alone. And increasingly, treatment and care for noncommunicable diseases are promoting well-being later in life.

Care before, during, and after pregnancy remains critical to the health of mother and child as well. Efforts that support women and couples to decide whether and when to have children, improve service delivery, and broaden access to high-quality care can have major positive impacts on decreasing neonatal and maternal mortality. Investments at the government level, including non-health investments like improving infrastructure and communication networks, can also have significant benefits on ensuring women and their children can access the quality care they need.

I share these proof points to highlight the work being done across the Exemplars in Global Health community to support health through every stage of life. From community engagement to national policymaking, EGH research reinforces the importance of empowering effective local decision-making to maximize today’s interventions and integrate promising innovations in the future.

We look forward to continuing these conversations at this year’s WHA, and supporting the commitment we all make to ensure health for all is never met with an expiration date.

Stories

Vietnam champions workplace-based breastfeeding

The country has positioned itself as a global leader in improving breastfeeding rates, which research shows boosts children’s nutrition and supports women’s empowerment in the workplace. Read the full story here.

Healthy meals powering Bangladesh's factory workers and economy

The executive director of Women in Global Health discusses how global health institutions can improve equity in leadership and close the gender pay gap for health workers. Learn about the results here.

Read the full April 2024 newsletter here.