Taking health systems research to the district level: a new approach to accelerate progress in global health

The world recently marked the tenth anniversaries of the launch of both The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). A decade ago, few could have possibly imagined how different the world would look today from the future we feared — a future where the country where one lived determined if one lived and where the rich increasingly tried to seal themselves off from the poor. Due to the courage of tens of thousands of activists across the globe who put their bodies on the line, the innovation of scientists who refused to relent in the face of complexity, and the vision of policymakers across six continents who imagined a more just and healthy future, we live today in a world that has started to be defined more by our connections than our differences.