Global Health Programs:  Big Successes in the Midst of Big Transitions

Speaker:  Ambassador John E. Lange, Senior Fellow, Global Health Diplomacy, United Nations Foundation

This event is co-sponsored by
UW International Division

and United Nations Association Dane County Chapter

Over the last twenty years, bilateral and multilateral global health programs have greatly expanded and have saved millions of lives.  Many of these are “vertical” programs focusing on a single disease or condition, such as the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  There now is a greater emphasis on “horizontal” programs to strengthen health systems.  The new Director General of the World Health Organization has made universal health coverage, one of the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, his top priority.  And the new Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria says, “If we work together to mobilize funds, build strong health systems and establish effective community responses we will be able to end epidemics, promote prosperity and increase our global health security.”  Ambassador Lange will discuss the many successes of global health programs as well as the challenges ahead in strengthening health systems.
 
Ambassador John Lange serves as the UN Foundation’s primary focal point for global health diplomacy activities.  He worked from 2009-2013 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he engaged in high-level advocacy with international organizations and African governments.  He served as Co-Chair of the GPEI Polio Partners Group from 2012-2016.  Lange had a distinguished 28-year career in the Foreign Service at the U.S. Department of State, where he was a pioneer in the field of global health diplomacy.  He served as the Special Representative on Avian and Pandemic Influenza; Deputy U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the inception of PEPFAR; and U.S. Ambassador to Botswana (1999-2002), where HIV/AIDS was his signature issue.  Lange led the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as Chargé d'Affaires during the August 7, 1998, terrorist bombing.  Earlier, he had tours of duty in Geneva, Lomé, Paris and Mexico City.  Prior to joining the diplomatic service in 1981, he worked for five years at the United Nations Association of the USA in New York.  He has an M.S. degree from the National War College and J.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.