Policy & Advocacy

Working to influence and shape global health policies to improve health around the world.

Since 1958, Project HOPE has confronted the world’s greatest health challenges and most urgent emergencies. With that experience comes six decades of trusted global health expertise and thorough local understanding. As an organization based in Washington, D.C., we are able to combine these two attributes with deep policy awareness and political understanding to effectively advocate for better health and humanitarian policies, funding and engagement. 

Our four Policy & Advocacy focus areas:

nurse teaching two students CPR
Trainers conducting Basic Life Support Training at Vasylkiv Primary HealthCare Center in Ukraine. Photo: Nikita Hlazyrin for Project HOPE.

Empowering Local Health Care Workers

Project HOPE has trained millions of health care workers worldwide since our founding.  Health care workers are at the heart of our mission and we know that skilled health workers are the backbone of all health systems. To better improve the vital core of every health system, we must work to increase targeted resources and greater attention from U.S. and global leaders. 

 Project HOPE is a member of the Frontline Health Worker Coalition. 

• We’re Taking Health Care Workers – a Bastion of our Societies – for Granted
• Project HOPE Applauds the Focus on Health Workforce in the Successful U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit
mother with two children
A family in Ethiopia receiving treatment for malaria. Photo: James Buck for Project HOPE, 2022

Strengthening Global Health Actions

For 65 years, Project HOPE has transformed the health and well-being of people and communities around the world. We work on the front lines of the world’s health challenges, partnering hand-in-hand with communities, health care workers and public health systems to ensure sustainable change.

Policies established by the United Nations, USAID, the State Department, various philanthropic donors, or others can set the stage for success of efforts to improve health care, particularly in the global south.

We lend our experience and expertise to these dialogues to help influence the outcomes in ways that can best improve health and well-being.

Project HOPE is actively engaged with the Global Health Coalition.

• To Defeat Malaria – More of the Same Will Not Do

• Health Expert Voices: Reflections on 20th Anniversary of PEPFAR

• Project HOPE Applauds the Appointment of Dr. Jean Kaseya as Director General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

• Project HOPE Supports the MINDS Act

woman stands in front of destroyed building in Ukraine
Project HOPE has been responding in Ukraine since the invasion. Photo: Nikita Hlazyrin for Project HOPE, 2023.

Supporting People in Crisis

With Project HOPE’s “no regrets” approach, we stand ready and are always equipped to support people in crisis, whether they are victims of an acute natural disaster or human-made conflict. As the world’s crises compound, it’s the poorest countries that bear the greatest cost: hospitals and clinics underequipped, communities under-prepared, families unable to obtain food, clean water or medicine. Yet, when the television cameras move on, Project HOPE remains.

We work to ensure that the ongoing needs for lifesaving humanitarian assistance do not slip from the agendas of governments and donors and encourage the best use of scarce resources in crises.

• News Alert: Rural Communities in Northeast Nigeria are Out of Water and Health Workers, New Assessment Finds

• The Hill: Opinion – Intervention needed now in Haiti—foreign entities must work with Haitians

• Project HOPE Commends the U.S. & United Nations for Issuing Historic Humanitarian Sanction Exceptions

• The Hill: Opinion – Ethiopia can turn the corner again, but will require real support

A doctor examining a young child
Project HOPE is bringing mobile medical unit to treat people on location, drawing a huge crowd walking for miles. Six or seven cases of severe child malnutrition were seen, corresponding to a likely existence of 60-70 such cases in the surrounding community, PH workers said. Outside Erebti, Ethiopia. Photo: James Buck for Project HOPE, 2022

Increasing U.S. Leadership & Investment

U.S. investment in global health, through development or humanitarian assistance, delivers improved health outcomes in countries around the world. At Project HOPE we are proud to implement some of the finest examples of these life-saving investments. Continued strong U.S. leadership and robust investments are needed to maintain the gains already made and to better ensure the best health outcomes for those in need.

At Project HOPE, we lend our knowledgeable voice and proven on-the-ground outcomes to support and advocate for more and better U.S. investment in health development and humanitarian assistance.

Project HOPE is a proud member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

• The Hill: Opinion – Out of sight cannot be out of mind: Ukraine, hurricane and COVID crises

Read more about Project HOPE’s Policy & Advocacy work

Long-serving International NGO, Project HOPE Accelerates Efforts in Health Advocacy

Since 1958, Project HOPE has confronted the world’s greatest health challenges and daunting emergencies. Now, we have added dedicated resources to advocate for more and better health and humanitarian policies, funding, and engagement.


Q&A: How Can Advocacy Advance Foreign Aid?

What are the greatest threats to humanitarian aid? What trends are worth watching? And can we continue to advance humanitarian causes with a divided Congress? Learn more in this Q&A with Project HOPE’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, Jed Meline.