Global health partnerships: Working towards the attainment of the millennium development goals-a global strategy with local implementation

Globalization has caused the physical boundaries of countries around the world to shrink, creating greater global connectivity and interdependence. With the development of modern technology, fast transportation systems, the establishment of the World Wide Web, and the pursuit of international trade among others; diseases formerly limited to certain countries or regions of the world, can now travel at alarming speed to the far reaches of the world creating global pandemics. With diseases being a flight or bus trip away, developed countries and multilateral organizations have come to realize that they can no longer afford to be apathetic about the health issues and conditions of people in low- and middle- income countries. Thus, in 2000, 193 world leaders and at least 23 international organizations, adopted the United Nations (UN) Millennium Declaration. With this adoption, individual UN member states and international organizations agreed to work together to achieve eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), ranging from combating HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases to developing global partnerships for development by 2015. Of the eight MDGs, six directly address health issues. This presentation seeks to discuss and assess the various strategies low- and middle-income countries are utilizing to address and achieve the health-related MDGs through collaboration with their global health partners.