Over the past year the Global Health Initiative’s efforts to increase the depth and breadth of GHI members and partners’ engagement in HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria and in the strengthening of health systems led to rewarding results.

Through its coordination and leadership role, the GHI significantly increased the quality and quantity of private sector engagement in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Stop TB and Roll Back Malaria Partnerships.

In India, the India Business Alliance (IBA) to Stop TB, grew its membership to 35 companies and NGOs that reach over 1.5 million employees and 3 million dependants and community members. Based on this success, IBA members are working towards adapting and disseminating the lessons learned to address emerging challenges in TB control in India and on expanding the scope of the work to other disease areas, such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

In China, one year after its launch the GHI-led China Health Alliance now comprises 23 organizations. Preparations are under way involving members of the alliance to set up HIV/AIDS & TB workplace programmes targeting in particular migrant workers, in four pilot factories of Arcandor, a CHA and Forum member company.

In Africa, the GHI project on strengthening the health systems in Sub-Saharan Africa reached a milestone by convening, with support from the Ghanaian Ministry of Health, the first ‘Inter-Agency Leadership Committee’ meeting in Accra, Ghana, in April. The purpose of this meeting was to leverage the competencies, tools and resources of the GHI's private sector partners, those of BD for this particular meeting, to strengthen the management capacities between the Ghana Ministry of Health and its agencies. Other GHI project partners will contribute to subsequent meetings in 2008.

The GHI continued to pursue its mandate for advocacy and awareness raising by developing and launching a number of advocacy reports readily available for use by businesses. The first global report of its kind, ‘Business Coalitions Tackling AIDS: A Worldwide Review’ developed in partnership with UNAIDS, the World Bank and GTZ, demonstrates that Business Coalitions around the world are now helping thousands of companies tackle AIDS in the workplace. The GHI report ‘Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Health: The Private Sector’s Role in Public-Private Partnerships’, created in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton, uncovers the underlying principles of successful PPPs in health and represents a useful reference for any company wishing to enter into a PPP in health. Based on results from the World Economic Forum’s annual Executive Opinion Survey (EOS), ‘Tackling Tuberculosis: The Business Response’ provides an overview of the threat posed by TB to the private sector.

At the fourth ‘GHI Media Advisory Board’ event held this March in London, the GHI convened five global experts on Tuberculosis to brief select journalists from The Economist, The Lancet, Wall Street Journal Europe, US Public Radio International, The Hindu and New African on the most recent developments in the World of TB and highlight the key findings of the ‘Tackling Tuberculosis: The Business Response’ to encourage and enable informed coverage of TB in the media.

At the Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions in China, the GHI delivered “Health@Dalian” a series of high-impact public and private sessions on both chronic and infectious diseases.