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Three ages of global health assistance

Henry Greenberg
Med J Aust 2014; 201 (6): . || doi: 10.5694/mja14.00194
Published online: 15 September 2014

The global priorities are prevention and management of non-communicable diseases

The world of global health assistance today bears little resemblance to that of the post World War II (WWII) era when international global assistance began. During the decade after WWII, the United Nations, World Health Organization, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and other international agencies were created, designed to nurse back to health a devastated world. In concert with the Marshall Plan, President Truman's Point 4 program included a Technical Cooperation Administration lodged in the Department of State, designed to help struggling states; health was part of that portfolio.


  • 1 Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
  • 2 Institute of Human Nutrition, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.


Correspondence: hmg1@columbia.edu

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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