Clinton Health Access Initiative Inc

Causes: AIDS, Health, International, International Relief

Mission: The clinton health access initiative (chai) is a global health organization committed to saving lives, reducing the burden of disease and strengthening integrated health systems in the developing world.

Programs: Maternal and child health: women and children bear the brunt of global disease mortality and morbidity. Well-timed and targeted interventions can dramatically reduce mortality for mothers and their children. Chai is working to ensure that mothers and their children have access to lifesaving treatment and that all families have the tools to safely plan their families to improve health outcomes and strengthen their economic well-being. Chai has significantly increased coverage of lifesaving treatments for diarrhea and pneumonia, the largest killers of children under five, improved nutrition for women and children and is implementing an integrated approach to dramatically and sustainably reduce maternal and neonatal mortality by addressing critical gaps in health systems to avert preventable deaths that occur around childbirth. In 2016, two independent external evaluations demonstrated that the chai approach, in a target area of 10 million people in northern nigeria, contributed to a sustained 37 percent reduction in maternal mortality, a 43 percent reduction in neonatal mortality and a 15 percent reduction in stillbirths within 12 months.

global health spending: strong health systems are the key to eliminating disease, treating those who are sick and reducing mortality. While low-income countries in africa and southeast asia experience over half of the global disease burden and are home to 40 percent of the world's population, they account for only three percent of health spending. These resource shortages, combined with weaknesses in delivery systems, including a severe deficit of skilled health workers, prevent the population from accessing even basic quality services. Chai is working with its partner governments to strengthen and fundamentally reform their health financing systems to increase sustainability and reduce financial barriers preventing access to essential health services by helping to understand needs, address gaps and improve management of available resources.

hiv/aids: since 2002, chai has worked to improve access to diagnosis, prevention and treatment for those impacted by hiv/aids in the developing world. Alongside our partners, chai has helped save the lives of over 11. 8 million people and significantly lowered the prices of high-quality treatments. Chai catalyzed the scale up of pediatric aids treatment from around 75,000 hiv-infected children receiving treatment in developing countries in 2005 (11 percent of those in need) to 920,000 children on treatment globally today. In 2016, chai continued this work with partners to expand hiv testing, increase access to quality care, and scale up proven interventions to prevent disease transmission. Chai helped several countries adopt new guidelines from the world health organization (who) to initiate treatment for all people diagnosed with hiv regardless of disease progression, helped improve access to newer and better treatment and prevention options, and continued to work with partners to improve access to testing, prevention and treatment for infants and children.