February 28, 2022 | An oped mentioning Islamic Relief USA was published in CARE about the For Robust Emergency Funding for Global COVID-19 Response
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 …”
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