Sec. 205. Public health in the Pacific Islands
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The Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, in coordination with the Secretary of State, shall develop and implement a strategy to assist the Pacific Islands in improving public health outcomes and building public health capacity, including in response to the COVID–19 pandemic. The strategy developed under this section shall include— programming, including grants, cooperative agreements, and other forms of assistance as the Administrator determines appropriate, to assist in building local capacity to address— maternal and child health; family planning and reproductive health; gender-based violence; food security and nutrition; non-communicable diseases; communicable diseases, including neglected tropical diseases, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, sexually-transmitted infections, and zoonotic and emerging infectious disease threats; equitable access to quality, essential, and affordable health services and quality-assured, safe, effective medical products and their appropriate use; and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH); technical assistance to strengthen local health system capacity and resilience in the areas of good leadership and governance, sustainable financing, interoperable information systems and high quality data for decision making, efficient medical products and supply chain systems, and management of human resources for health, with special attention to increasing health worker performance, retention, productivity, number, skill mix, and competency, including through exploring opportunities such as private sector engagement and digital health integration and access; and coordination with existing local and regional health sector goals, efforts, institutions, and frameworks.
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that contains the strategy developed under this section. The report required by paragraph
(1)shall include an identification of— health care challenges, including health systems strengthening, immunization, non-communicable diseases, and gender-based violence, in the Pacific Islands; public health challenges and needs related to the COVID–19 pandemic in the Pacific Islands; and objectives, means of implementation, and measures of success for the strategy. In this subsection, the term appropriate congressional committees means— the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives; and the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate. There are authorized to be appropriated $20,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to carry out this section.