The UK aid response to global health threats – new review

31 Jan 2018

While health has been a major focus of UK aid for many years, the response to and lessons from the Ebola crisis prompted a rapid scaling up of activity and spending to address global health threats.

We have published a new review, The UK aid response to global health threats, which scrutinises this scale up of activity.

The review found that the UK government responded rapidly to address weaknesses in the international response system exposed by the Ebola crisis, developing a coherent and evidence-based framework for addressing global health threats and establishing a portfolio of relevant and often pioneering programmes and influencing activities.

However, having been quick to capture initial lessons from the Ebola crisis, this review found that the UK government has not followed through with sufficiently robust evaluation and knowledge dissemination practices.

The review recommends that the government’s framework for addressing global health threats be developed into a global health strategy, published and communicated widely in order to encourage other donors and multilateral agencies to align their activities and spending with the UK’s efforts.

Read the full review.