Today, USAID announced the launch of the Localize Global Health Security project a critical five-year, up to $37 million contract that will work with local organizations to strengthen their capacities to support their communities to prevent, detect and respond to emerging health threats in 15 countries through Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
Recent global health security initiatives, such as preventing, detecting, and responding to emerging threats such as Ebola, mpox, and COVID-19, have highlighted the importance of community trust and engagement for the acceptance, uptake, and sustainability of global health security interventions. The Localize Global Health Security project will augment current approaches by engaging local governments, NGOs, and businesses to reach three objectives: address critical gaps in health security, strengthen the organizational capacity of local entities, and expand global health knowledge based on current approaches and best practices.
USAID emphasizes local partnerships as a core aspect for long-term sustainability. In 2021, Administrator Power set two targets for increasing the Agency's localization efforts,announcing that 25 percent of assistance will go directly to local partners by fiscal year 2025 and 50 percent of programming will place local communities in the lead by the end of the decade.
The Localize Global Health Security project will help advance the second localization goal by issuing grants to local organizations for interventions to address critical gaps in the country's health security.
For more than 15 years, USAID's Global Health Security Program has been engaged in efforts to address endemic, emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats. This Global Health Security project is an important next step in supporting the agency's goals in strengthening global health security through localization.
