<p>Over the last year, we have witnessed a plummeting global economy, one so distressed that it is hard to point at any one thing — real estate, a company, a commodity — that can hold real value and pay dividends. That sort of instability makes it a great time to be in global public health. For the last few decades, pundits have critiqued our work, pointedly asking about the ‘cost-effectiveness’ of public health interventions and demanding returns on investment for public health dollars, which correspond to the sky-high returns seen in the private sector over the past ten years. While not completely free of corruption, inflated numbers and general lack of transparency reminiscent of the global financial meltdown, public health programmes and professionals can point to the value of their programmes and the returns seen in the average financial portfolio of the last several years.</p>
