Reflections on selection of Ambassador Goosby to head U.S. Office of Global Health Diplomacy

Noting U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator "Ambassador Eric Goosby has been selected to head the U.S. Department of State's new Office of Global Health Diplomacy, officially turning the page in the ongoing saga of the program formally known as the Global Health Initiative (GHI)," Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the center's "Global Health Policy" blog that the appointment "stirred many of the same questions and concerns that arose from the GHI death notice and left me wondering: is this news a Christmas miracle or a lump of coal for U.S. global health programs?" In the joint post with Jenny Ottenhoff, policy outreach associate at the CGD, Glassman discusses her thoughts on how "a global health ambassador could prove a 'value add' to the U.S. global health architecture" and her "fear that ambassadorial leadership and increased diplomacy on their own are unlikely to move the GHI goals forward dramatically." She continues, "While the official launch of the office is probably not the Christmas miracle U.S. global health programs need, it looks like a step forward considering the general dysfunction GHI faced the last four years" (12/17).