Advancing the America First Global Health Strategy Through a Landmark Bilateral Global Health MOU with Côte d’Ivoire

Under the America First Global Health Strategy, the United States is refocusing global health assistance to protect the American people from infectious disease threats, while ending open-ended dependency on U.S. taxpayers.  That approach is being put into action through Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) that require U.S. assistance recipients to invest their own resources and take responsibility for results.

Today, the United States signed a five-year, $937 million bilateral health cooperation MOU with the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire that locks in a path to full country ownership, recipient country co-investment, and accountability.  The MOU makes clear that Côte d’Ivoire must take greater responsibility for preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious diseases that can threaten the United States.  It shifts our global health cooperation away from indefinite aid toward self-reliance and results-driven approaches for American taxpayers.

Under the MOU, the United States will provide up to $487 million in targeted assistance over five years.  Côte d’Ivoire will invest $450 million in new domestic health funding to become self-reliant, and $125 million of the co-investment is dedicated to taking on full responsibility for frontline health workers and essential health commodities.

This assistance is focused on stopping outbreaks early—before they spread across borders.  It strengthens epidemic surveillance and laboratory systems, modernizes health supply chains and data systems, and reinforces frontline health systems so outbreaks are detected faster and contained sooner.  The landmark MOU also expands opportunities for U.S. companies by supporting modern logistics, data, and supply-chain solutions critical to infectious disease control and response.  Stronger health systems among U.S. assistance recipients mean fewer uncontrolled outbreaks—and fewer infectious disease threats reaching America’s shores.

The United States remains committed to signing multi-year Bilateral MOUs on Global Health Cooperation in the coming weeks with dozens of countries receiving U.S. health assistance, advancing the America First Global Health Strategy.