Halting COVID-19 Requires Collective, Decentralized, and Community-Led Responses

Abstract

Many global health organizations are reliant on the funding provided by a few dozen high-income countries, making them fiscally insecure and fragile, especially during times of global crises. The COVID-19 pandemic could be an opportunity to move away from this status quo to a more decentralized, multipolar, and community-led approach. The global health community can take four immediate steps in response to the pandemic to start that paradigm shift now: support more regional and country-specific responses, convince national and regional business houses and philanthropies to make up for response funding shortfalls, leverage public health advocacy to improve investments in public health infrastructure, and put community leaders and members at the frontlines of mitigation efforts.