CIVICUS discusses the need for community-centred approaches to global health funding and governance with Solange Baptiste, Executive Director of ITPC Global, a South Africa-based global organisation working to achieve health and social justice for all.
In early 2025, the Trump administration’s funding freeze devastated the global health sector, triggering immediate medicine shortages and staff furloughs, and disrupting HIV treatment across multiple countries. Clinics dependent on US assistance were stripped of supplies and resources virtually overnight. This crisis has exposed the fragility of donor-dependent systems and intensified calls for more equitable and resilient funding alternatives, including Global Public Investment (GPI) frameworks where all countries contribute to, participate in and benefit from shared decision-making rather than depending on the whims of major donors.