Giving Compass' Take:

• Jenny Lei Ravelo reports that shortcomings in the global healthcare systems - namely addressing diseases and institutions instead of engaging people - are why we are at risk of losing our grip on the HIV epidemic.

• How can philanthropy help to shift the focus of global health initiatives? Why have global health structures previously been oriented around institutions?

• Find out how Rwanda rerouted HIV/AIDS funding to make an impactful change to their health system.

Global health programs often have a common structure: Donors come in and deliver funding, then money trickles down to a global institution or an implementing organization that develops programs based on what they think is needed on the ground.

But despite good intentions, health programs don’t always get the full picture and end up missing critical points of intervention.

“Unfortunately, health programs are not focused on the patient,” said Agnes Binagwaho, vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity and former health minister of Rwanda.

Binagwaho pointed out that: “With HIV, it brought money to fight a virus, but not the well-being of the people.”

The implications of these shortcomings in interventions are now apparent. Mark Dybul, faculty co-director at Georgetown University Medical Center and former Global Fund executive director, says the world is now at high risk of losing control of the HIV epidemic.

There are various reasons why this is happening but a key point is the global health community’s inability to connect with youth, according to the global HIV champion, one of the founding architects of PEPFAR.

Read the full article about global health by Jenny Lei Ravelo at Devex International Development.