EGPAF Joins Global Health Partners in Urging White House to Make Swift Request from Congress For Robust Emergency Funding for Global COVID-19 Response

EGPAF joins global health, humanitarian, development, and private sector organizations in a letter to the Biden Administration urging engagement with Congress to support increased funding for the global health, humanitarian, and development accounts in the final FY2022 spending package.

February 28, 2022

Joseph R. Biden
President of the United States of America The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Biden:

On behalf of organizations working across a multitude of global health, humanitarian, and development challenges, we strongly urge you to swiftly send a formal request to Congress asking for additional emergency supplemental funding that reflects the true needs outlined by your agency experts to respond to the challenges of COVID-19 globally, as well as the increasingly alarming global hunger and humanitarian situations. We also ask that you engage with Congress to support increased funding for the global health, humanitarian, and development accounts in the final Fiscal Year 2022 spending package.

The length and severity of the pandemic means that previous United States government resources for the global COVID-19 response are all but expended. According to USAID testimony to Congress, in a few weeks’ time there will be no additional U.S. resources available to deliver the vaccines your administration has procured, to deliver technical assistance to protect people from COVID-19, or to respond to the other devastating impacts of the pandemic without severely undermining core global health programs. Without additional investment now, the leadership the United States has shown in vaccine deployment will be wasted as vaccines risk expiration before they can reach those in need.

An under-resourced global COVID-19 response puts the success of existing global health, development, and humanitarian programs at risk if financial resources, human capital, and health systems are stretched beyond their capacity. Unfortunately, numerous humanitarian and hunger crises are already worsening, many as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic shocks. Our previous global COVID-19 investments have leveraged existing U.S. global health and development ingenuity, platforms, and relationships to efficiently and effectively impact the pandemic, but with funding running out, there is a financial and programmatic cliff ahead. According to World Bank reporting, over 80 million people globally have been plunged into extreme poverty during the pandemic, and additional shocks will further exacerbate the pandemic’s devastating effects.

As we have learned time and time again, COVID-19 knows no borders and the pandemic will not be over in the United States until it is under control around the world. Please do not abandon requesting additional resources for the global response. Countries, communities, and families are desperately in need of our support and are looking to the United States for leadership.

If news reports are true, the proposed need that your administration briefed to Congress last week would dramatically underfund your goals to vaccinate 70% of the world and respond to the devastating impacts of COVID-19, stymying U.S leadership. Please send a formal request to Congress for additional and robust supplemental funding for the global COVID-19 response today.

Sincerely,

Blythe Thomas, Initiative Director
1,000 Days, an initiative of FHI Solutions

John Oldfield, CEO
Accelerate Global LLC

Dr. Charles Owubah, CEO
Action Against Hunger

Dr. Arti Varanasi, President & CEO
Advancing Synergy

Robert Blank, President & CEO
American Jewish World Service

Karen A. Goraleski, CEO
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Sean C. Carroll, President & CEO
Anera

Devin A. Jopp, EdD, CEO
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology

Mitchell Warren, Executive Director
AVAC

Nancy Devine and Candace Debnam, Co-Chairs
Basic Education Coalition

Peter M. Yeo, President
Better World Campaign

Clint Borgen, President
The Borgen Project

Rev. Eugene Cho, President & CEO
Bread for the World

Michelle Nunn, President & CEO
CARE

Kieran Suckling, Executive Director
Center for Biological Diversity

Maria Thacker-Goethe, CEO
Center for Global Health Innovation

Anne Lynam Goddard, President & CEO
ChildFund International

Doug Fountain, Executive Director
Christian Connections for International Health

Rick Santos, President & CEO
Church World Service

Colleen Kelly, CEO
Concern Worldwide U.S.

Lisa Hilmi, Executive Director
CORE Group

Rachel M. Cohen, Regional Executive Director
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), North America

Charles Lyons, President & CEO
Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation

Tessie San Martin, CEO
FHI 360

Mark Viso, President & CEO
Food for the Hungry

Chris Collins, President & CEO
Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

Ernest Loevinsohn, Executive Director
Fund for Global Health

Daniel B. Peterson, Executive Director (Interim)
Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, & Anaesthesia Care (G4 Alliance)

David A. Weiss, CEO
Global Communities

Elisha Dunn-Georgiou, President & CEO
Global Health Council

Jamie Bay Nishi, Executive Director
Global Health Technologies Coalition

Marsha A. Martin, Coordinating Director
Global Network of Black People Working in HIV

Mark Rodriguez, Interim Executive Director
Heartland Alliance

Kathy Spahn, President & CEO
Hellen Keller International

Mark Hetfield, President & CEO
HIAS

Jeff Meer, U.S. Executive Director
Humanity & Inclusion

Mark Feinberg, President & CEO
IAVI

Christopher D. Busky, CAE, Chief Executive Officer
Infectious Diseases Society of America

Dr. José M. Zuniga, President & CEO
International Association of Providers of AIDS Care

Ky Luu, Chief Operating Officer
International Medical Corps

Jeanne Bourgault, President & CEO
Internews

Polly Dunford, President & CEO
IntraHealth International

Sharif Aly, CEO
Islamic Relief USA

Joan Rosenhauer, Executive Director
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA

Marian W. Wentworth, President & CEO
Management Sciences for Health

Giorgio Franyuti, Director General
Medical IMPACT

Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO
Mercy Corps

Daphne de Souza Lima, President
Miracle Feet

Fran Eskin-Royer, Executive Director
National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

Doug O’Brien, President & CEO
National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International

Tom Hart, President
ONE Campaign

Abby Maxman, President & CEO
Oxfam America

Nabeeha Kazi Hutchins, President & CEO
PAI

Carolyn Reynolds, Co-Founder
Pandemic Action Network

Dr. Sheila Davis, CEO
Partners in Health

Nikolaj Gilbert, President & CEO
PATH

Lois Quam, President & CEO
Pathfinder International

James E. Morgan, President & CEO
Physicians for Peace

Alexis McGill Johnson, President & CEO
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Kathleen Mogelgaard, President & CEO
Population Institute

Karl Hofman, President & CEO
Population Services International (PSI)

Bruce Richman, Founding Executive Director
Prevention Access Campaign

Dr. Mary A. Pittman, Ph.D., President & CEO
Public Health Institute

Eric P. Schwartz
President Refugees International

Joanne Carter, Executive Director
RESULTS

Jeff Whisenant, President & CEO
ReSurge International

Amy Finan, CEO
Sabin Vaccine Institute

Janti Soeripto, President & CEO
Save the Children

Dr. Vanessa Kerry, Co-Founder and CEO
Seed Global Health

Dr. Caroline Harper
Sightsavers

David A. Ross, President & CEO
The Task Force for Global Health

Björg Pálsdóttir, CEO
Training for Health Equity Network: THEnet

Mark Harrington, Executive Director
Treatment Action Group

Dr. Daniela Ligiéro, Executive Director & CEO
Together for Girls

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Union for Reform Judaism

Rachel Bowen Pittman
Executive Director United Nations Association of the USA

Earl W. Gast, President
University Research Co., LLC (URC)

Kelly Parsons
CEO WaterAid America

Annie G. Toro, JD, MPH, President & Executive Director
What to Expect Project

Taroub Harb Faramand, President
WI-HER, LLC

Dr. Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director
Women in Global Health

Sarah Costa, Executive Director
Women’s Refugee Commission

Carol Jenkins, CEO
World Learning

Edgar Sandoval Sr., President & CEO
World Vision US

cc:

Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff
Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor/Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, National Security Council
Jeff Zients, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator
Linda Etim, Senior Director for Development, Global Health, and Humanitarian Response/Special Assistant to the President, National Security Council
Ed Meier, Associate Director for National Security Programs, White House Office of Management and Budget
Antony J. Blinken, Secretary, Department of State
Mary Beth Goodman, Coordinator for Global COVID Response and Health Security, U.S. Department of State
Samantha Power, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Jeremy Konydyk, Senior Advisor, Office of the Administrator; Executive Director, USAID COVID- 19 Task Force
Loyce Pace, Director, Office of Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services