India Business Alliance (IBA)

Why an India Business Alliance?

The India Business Alliance (IBA) was developed by the Global Health Initiative (GHI) in response to the increasing threat of the TB epidemic. The Alliance, a first for India and the world, was set up to stimulate and facilitate business sector engagement in TB care and control in India, through advocacy, technical support for developing policies and programmes and through delivery of TB preventive and treatment services. The IBA was launched on World TB Day, March 24, 2004 with leading Indian companies such as Aditya Birla, Larsen Toubro, Lupin Ltd, Modicare Foundation, Novartis India, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel joining forces with the Revised National TB Control Program (RNTCP) of the Indian Ministry of Health, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the World Health Organization and the Global Stop TB Partnership.

The India Business Alliance in practice

The key principle behind the IBA is simple: each member company that is part of the Alliance focuses on its strengths and collaborates in its area of expertise. Member companies implement disease-control activities either in their workplaces and/or at the community level. The Global Health Initiative has been coordinating and facilitating the Alliance, by providing advocacy and technical support. Member companies are reaching more than 4.5 million people including 150,000 employees with life-saving information, diagnostic and treatment services. Thousands have been detected, treated and cured of TB, according to an evaluation done in 2006-7.

The IBA also provided its members with the opportunity to be actively engaged in the Stop TB Partnership, providing them with a platform to interact with the global community, and encouraging them to join specific working groups. Furthermore, the Global Fund regularly asks the IBA to share lessons learnt and experiences of addressing TB through the private sector.

Supporting Tools

A wealth of tools and best practices are available to help companies initiate TB control activities in collaboration with the RNTCP and other partners. The TB Workplace Awareness Toolkit, developed by the World Economic Forum with support from the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership and in partnership with the International Council of Nurses, is an important awareness-building toolkit, that focuses both on TB and on the multi-drug resistant forms of the disease. It has been adapted to country-specific contexts for China and South Africa and the Indian version is in the process of being updated. Further guidelines for workplace TB control activities developed by the GHI, WHO and ILO are available to help companies plan and implement TB control activities.

In line with the Forum’s strategy on health, the IBA has been encouraging its member companies to move beyond TB programmes and address other health issues that affect their employees. For example, the recent Workplace Wellness team of the Forum was able to draw lessons from IBA members’ engagement in TB and to encourage them to become among the first “adopters” of addressing non-communicable diseases in the workplace. Specifically, IBA members are working with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) on integrating both workplace wellness and disease management activities. The Health team at the World Economic Forum continues to build on the successes of the IBA to reach an even greater number of organizations, through the sharing of learnings and tools, as well as through advocacy activities.

The GHI's initial objectives for the India Business Alliance have been reached: providing a model and delivering tangible results in TB care and control through private sector interventions. The IBA was able to continuously increase its company and NGO membership, thus demonstrating the continued relevance of the IBA public-private partnership model. It has initiated a process to transition the IBA to local leadership through the identification of an appropriate lead organization. The Forum will be handing over the tools, knowledge and member base to the identified lead organization, while continuing to provide mentoring and strategic advice.