The Carter Center Embraces Next Quarter-Century

by Dr. John Hardman, Carter Center President and CEO

In practice, waging peace, fighting disease, and building hope are not easy tasks. Yet our mission at The Carter Center is to embrace these difficult responsibilities, accepting failure as a possible outcome. In our first 25 years, the Center showed that no matter how insurmountable challenges to global peace or health may seem, there is hope they can be overcome.

After two decades of work, Guinea worm is poised to be the first parasitic disease eliminated from earth. We have reduced occurrences of Guinea worm to fewer than 10,000 cases and are pushing to eliminate it in Ghana and Sudan, where most cases remain.

One offshoot of this historic campaign has been the creation of village-based health care delivery systems throughout Africa. These existing grassroots networks will allow us to continue pioneering cutting-edge approaches to health care in developing countries, especially the delivery of treatments for multiple diseases at once, a tactic already growing in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Sudan. This integration of disease prevention efforts holds great promise for reducing the cost burden of disease on regional economies.

After witnessing great strides in the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses, our mental health program looks forward to further advancing parity for mental health in the U.S. health care system and to erasing once and for all the stigma against people with mental illnesses, allowing them the dignity they deserve.

In our peace programs, efforts to strengthen freedom and democracy will continue in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. We remain dedicated to resolving conflicts peacefully, strengthening democratic electoral processes, advancing rule of law, and supporting human rights and their defenders. These efforts will continue to lay the foundations for peace with justice and ultimately a more secure world.

Looking toward the next quartercentury and beyond, we have confidence based on experience that, given a real chance, our partners in countries worldwide will continue to demonstrate that they can shape their own futures for the better, creating a more hopeful world for us all.