GHI NEWSLETTER - APRIL 2008

Dear Newsletter recipient,

Welcome to another issue of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) Newsletter. The past 10 months at the GHI have been very productive and eventful. This resulted in both deepening the engagement of GHI current members and partners such as, to name only a few, Accenture, Becton Dickinson, Booz Allen Hamilton, Eli Lilly, Reliance Industries, Standard Chartered Bank, Merck & Co., UNAIDS, World Bank, Gates Foundation and WHO, as well as in engaging new members and partners, such as Regional and National Business Coalitions, the Ghana Ministry of Health, PATH and SIDA, in finding innovative solutions to fighting HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. In addition, the GHI went a step forward in its efforts to strengthen health systems in Africa by implementing this project in its first pilot country, Ghana.

A number of private meetings at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos this year provided the GHI with the opportunity to hold in-depth and animated discussions on the theme: "Health on the CEO Agenda: How High Should It Be?" as well as on the findings of a new report on the role of the private sector in Public-Private Partnerships in global health. The GHI is also pleased to inform you of its newly created advocacy tools and recent personnel changes.

In this issue:

• Recent and Upcoming GHI Events: Inaugural Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Dalian, People's Republic of China 6-8 September 2007; Private Meeting of the Partners of the GHI's India Business Alliance, India Economic Summit 2007, New Delhi, India 2-4 December 2007; World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008, Davos, Switzerland 25-29 January 2008; Media Advisory Board Meeting, United Kingdom 11 March 2008; Strengthening the Management of Health Systems in Africa: First Inter-Agency Leadership Committee Meeting, Ghana 9 April 2008; (Third) Meeting of the Private Sector Constituency of the Stop TB Partnership, Egypt 8-9 May 2008; World Economic Forum on Africa, Cape Town, South Africa 4-6 June 2008.
• New Business Tools: "Business Coalitions Tackling AIDS: A Worldwide Review" report; "Public-Private Partnerships in Health: The Private Sector's Role in PPPs" report; "Tackling TB: The Business Response" report; "TB Awareness Toolkit for South Africa."
• GHI Team Update: Welcome and Goodbye
• Speakers' Corner: Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary, Stop TB Partnership, World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva
• Feedback & Subscription

Recent Events

To capitalize on this event and facilitate discussions on these vital health matters, the Global Health Initiative, together with the Healthcare Team of the Forum held "Health@Dalian", a series of high-impact public and private interactive sessions on both chronic and infectious diseases. Health@Dalian specifically focused on engaging businesses (ranging from the healthcare industry to the food & beverage, consumer goods, IT and financial services industries) in fostering new partnerships and finding innovative ways to tackling global health issues.

For additional information on this event, please follow this link:
www.weforum.org/en/events/ArchivedEvents/AnnualMeetingoftheNewChampions

For specific information about Health@Dalian, please contact the GHI Team at globalhealth@weforum.org

Private Meeting of partners of the GHI's India Business Alliance (IBA), India Economic Summit, New Dehli, India 2-4 December 2007

A private meeting of the partners of the India Business Alliance was organized at the India Economic Summit 2007. The objective was to discuss how the lessons learned from IBA could be adapted and applied systematically to address emerging challenges in TB control as well as in the development of new projects concentrating on other disease areas such as malaria and HIV/AIDS in India. It included an open discussion on next steps for the IBA, to move it to more local and sustainable leadership. The meeting was attended by representatives from international organizations, member companies of the IBA and its NGO partners. Key speakers were Peter Sands, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank, who urged the member companies to go beyond big business to small and medium enterprises citing their own experiences. S. Mohammed Afsar of the International Labour Organization provided the rationale for companies in India to get involved in HIV/AIDS control programmes and addressed the challenges faced by the member companies in partnering with the public sector to implement such programmes. Other speakers included K. K. Sharan, Tata Steel; Sunita Prasad, Eli Lilly; and Sanjay Sarin, Becton Dickinson & Company, who discussed new challenges in TB control. The members unanimously expressed their ambition to scale up the Alliance by increasing the number of member companies and extending the scope of work to other disease areas such as malaria and HIV/AIDS.

For additional information on this private event or about the IBA, please contact Shaloo Puri Kamble at shaloo.puri@weforum.org

Science and health issues were strongly featured in this year's Annual Meeting. Overall there were 12 official programme sessions and 4 Forum-led private meetings. These events gave the GHI the opportunity to continue advocating for additional and different ways for businesses to engage in the areas of malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS and in the strengthening of health systems, therefore reinforcing the GHI's role as a catalyst of global and regional public-private partnerships. The health sessions overall covered a broad array of health and science topics:

• Cancer Meets the Human Genome
• Preventing the Spread of Chronic Disease
• Rules for the Genome Era
• Malaria: What Does It Take to Stop It?
• Reforming Healthcare
• Death, Disease and Dirty Water

The flagship event of the GHI this year was its private CEO meeting under the theme: "Health on the CEO Agenda: How High Should It Be?". Approximately 70 participants (over 63% CEOs) interacted on the occasion of this event. A panel discussion followed by a keynote address and a case study were used to run the discussion on this theme.

The concept of a new "Chief Health Officer" position was put forward as a potential solution to ensure a continuous, holistic and strategic approach to identifying and managing risks and opportunities arising from health issues. Participants explored whether this position is required and feasible, to help determine and implement health strategies not only for organizations whose industry, markets and products are linked to public health, but also more generally for all types of industries and organizations.

Some of the key outcomes resulting from these animated discussions were:

• Health issues tend to be ignored until they affect the individual and company to such an extent that they suddenly become the only priority due to a crisis ("Health is never a top priority until it is the only priority").
• Health has to be championed from the top of the organization.
• Addressing health is becoming an overriding issue and an effective means for organizations to improve productivity, decrease absenteeism, reduce healthcare spending, retain employees as assets for the organization, and engage in corporate responsibility.
• Companies can benefit by addressing the well-being and health of their future employees by engaging in local community work with children, adolescents and young women to help foster a healthy and, therefore, productive future workforce.
• For health to be put onto the CEO's agenda, measuring and quantifying the enormous direct and indirect cost of health issues for the organization, as well as the benefits arising from addressing health issues is of critical importance.
• Putting health on the CEO's agenda is a long-term process; investing in addressing health issues may be 'painful' in the beginning, but over time is justified by the positive results and outcomes achieved.

In the lead up to World TB Day (24 March), to further stress the need for increased business engagement in TB, the GHI organized the fourth of its series of roundtable events (or Media Advisory Boards) on the issue of TB. The purpose of these media events is to invite a number of journalists to hear about the latest developments in a disease area from leading global health subject matter experts.

On 11 March, TB experts, including Dr Jorge Sampaio, UN Special Envoy to Stop TB; Dr Mario Raviglione, Director, Stop TB Department, WHO, Geneva; Alex Azar, Senior Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Communications, Eli Lilly and Company, USA; Shrinivas M. Shanbhag, Medical Adviser, Reliance Industries Limited; Gini Williams, TB Project Director, International Council of Nurses; and David Bloom, Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard School of Public Health, USA, had the opportunity to present key isssues on TB to select journalists from The Economist, The Lancet, The Wall Street Journal Europe, US Public Radio International, New African and The Hindu. In addition, David Bloom highlighted the findings of a new report, "Tackling Tuberculosis: The Business Response", launched on this occasion.

Strengthening the Management of Health Systems in Africa: First Inter-Agency Leadership Committee Meeting, Ghana 9 April

In September 2005, the GHI embarked on a project to strengthen the management of health systems in Africa. Now in its third phase with a pilot implementation in Ghana, the GHI project team facilitated a successful first Ghana Health Sector "Inter-Agency Leadership Committee Meeting" on 9 April just outside of Accra. This meeting, the first of a series of four meetings to take place in 2008, convened the heads of the 13 agencies of the Ministry of Health together with the Minister of Health and other key health leaders. The purpose was to leverage the competencies, tools and resources of GHI's private sector partners to strengthen the management capacity within the Ghana Ministry of Health and between its agencies. In particular, this first meeting focused on health sector priority setting using a "portfolio management approach" in addition to gaining consensus on the committee's governance structure. GHI partner, BD, together with other international and local organizations, including Management Strategies Africa and Barclays joined this event. Other GHI project partners, namely AMREF and Merck & Co.will facilitate the following meetings.

Upcoming Events

3rd Meeting of the Private Sector Constituency of the Stop TB Partnership, Cairo, Egypt 8-9 May

The next face-to-face meeting of the private sector constituency of the Stop TB Partnership will be held on 8-9 May 2008 in Cairo, a day after the Stop TB Partnership Board Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to further enhance collaboration between the private sector and various working groups and partners of the Stop TB Partnership. Heads of the working groups, as well as representatives of partner organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are expected to participate along with the private sector member companies. The meeting will look at the challenges and opportunities of engaging the private sector as a driver of innovation and facilitator of access to products and services. It will also emphasize the role of the private sector in advocacy and social awareness raising.

For additional information and should you be interested in participating, please contact Lakshmi Sundaram at lakshmi.sundaram@weforum.org.

World Economic Forum on Africa, Cape Town, South Africa 2-4 June

The 18th World Economic Forum on Africa will take place from 2 to 4 June in Cape Town, South Africa under the theme: "Capitalizing on Opportunity". The GHI team will build on this theme and capitalize on the fact that in recent years increased funding, stronger political support, greater convergence on policies and programming together with better coordination between the different players has heightened the attention of the global community on infectious diseases in Africa. In particular, the GHI team will use this event as a platform to develop a series of public and private sessions looking at innovative ways for businesses to start or further engage in tackling both infectious and chronic diseases, as well as to launch a new tool to assist businesses in implementing TB workplace programmes. To ensure you are part of the solutions, the GHI strongly encourages you to register for this event.

For additional information on this event and/or to register, please follow this link:
http://email.weforum.org/I?a=A9X7Cqhok,yA8QbLvabV64rjuQ

For additional information about health topics at this event, please contact Tanya Mounier at tanya.mounier@weforum.org or Lakshmi Sundaram at lakshmi.sundaram@weforum.org.

New Business Tools

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 also provided a golden opportunity to launch another report of the GHI, developed in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Health: The Private Sector's Role in Public-Private Partnership. The report uncovers the underlying principles of successful PPPs in health and is based on over 60 interviews, which examined the real-world experience of leading companies, governments and non-governmental organizations. The report may be a useful reference for any stakeholder wishing to enter into a PPP in health. For additional information on this report or to receive a hard copy of the report, please contact Tanya Mounier at tanya.mounier@weforum.org or Lakshmi Sundaram at lakshmi.sundaram@weforum.org.

The GHI, in partnership with Eli Lilly and others, is developing the TB Workplace Awareness Toolkit for the South African region, building on the successful toolkit launched in India in 2006. The objective of this version is to help companies in South Africa create awareness of TB and its link to HIV, address stigma and discrimination, and implement workplace and community based TB control programmes. The toolkit encourages companies to adopt an integrated approach to manage TB/HIV co-infections in collaboration with the National TB Programme and other private sector and civil society partners. To increase opportunities for better prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB and HIV in the workplace, the toolkit provides information on TB, TB/HIV, drug-resistant TB and related programme activities to human resources departments, healthcare professionals and other care and support staff. The toolkit will be launched at the World Economic Forum on Africa, in Cape Town in June 2008. For additional information on this Toolkit, please contact Shaloo Puri Kamble at shaloo.puri@weforum.org.

GHI Team Update

Welcome

Shannon Roper, Project Manager, Health Systems Management Strengthening, joined the GHI Team on 22 October. Her main responsibility is to start a pilot PPP implementation in Ghana to help improve communication, collaboration and overall health sector management within the 13 agencies of the Ministry of Health. Shannon has been seconded to the GHI from Accenture, where she is a Manager in their Health & Life Sciences practice and has focused on patient flow, care management and electronic health records projects in Canada and the United Kingdom. Most recently she worked with Accenture Development Partnerships and UNAIDS in Swaziland, Uganda and Kenya on a project to better understand bottlenecks in the flow of HIV/AIDS resources to civil society organizations. Before obtaining her MBA, Shannon worked as an occupational therapist in hospital and community settings.

Dorothee Ozzello, Project Manager, Global Health Initiative, joined the GHI Team on 3 March. Her main responsibility will be to support Lakshmi Sundaram in managing the relationship with the Stop TB Partnership. In addition, Dorothée will manage active and new projects in the field of HIV/AIDS and will support the team in other global health projects. She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) in Geneva, as well as a Wealth Management Diploma from UBS. She joined the World Economic Forum in November 2006 and worked for both the Arab Business Council (ABC) and the Global Growth Companies (GGC) within the Middle East and North Africa team where she strengthened her business development and organizational skills. She is passionate about the history of religions and actively practices architectural photography.

Anita Halasz, Team Coordinator, Global Health Initiative, joined the GHI Team on 3 March. Her main tasks will be to support the GHI team with all administrative and communication related matters. She will also continue her current assignment in the Database Team of the Forum, where she has been working since April 2007, when she joined the Forum. She developed a thorough knowledge of Database Research and Updating. Anita holds a Master of Arts in Development Studies from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva, as well as a Bachelor's in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies (HEI) in Geneva. She has working experience in Switzerland, Germany and Serbia and enjoys travelling and learning about different cultures.

Goodbye

Inderjit Sidhu, Project Manager, Global Health Initiative, who was seconded to us from Accenture for one year, left the GHI team at the end of February 2008 to return to her company. The GHI Team would like to congratulate Inderjit for her tremendous work in bringing to bear the GHI's "Beyond Big Business" partnership and for strengthening the GHI work with Business Coalitions, including spearheading the development and launch of the above mentioned report "Business Tackling AIDS: A Worldwide Review." The GHI Team wishes Inderjit the very best for her future career which undoubtedly will be brilliant.

Emma Jupp, Team Coordinator, Global Health Initiative, left the GHI Team at the end of January to join another team at the Forum. We would like to warmly thank Emma for supporting (and sometimes bearing with!) the very demanding GHI team during her two years. We wish Emma the very best in her future position at the Forum and are glad that we will not lose sight of her.

Pan Pan, Associate Director, Global Health Initiative, left the GHI Team at the end of November to join another team at the Forum. The GHI Team wishes to thank Pan for developing the initial plan of the China Health Alliance and closely working with the Chinese Government, for example, to obtain the government stamp on the plan, as well for her very hard work in leading and successfully delivering the above-mentioned "Health@Dalian" event. Again, we wish Pan the very best in her future career.

The Forum is actively continuing its search for a Senior Director to oversee all of the health activities at the Forum.

Speaker's Corner

Marcos Espinal Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership, World Health Organization, Geneva

World TB Day: a time for reflection and intensified action

This year's World TB Day marked the beginning of the Stop TB Partnership's campaign "I am stopping TB", aimed at highlighting the positive contributions that can be made by all members of society in fighting TB.

We celebrate the fact that this year, for the first time, statistics show a worldwide decline in TB incidence. This demonstrates the encouraging work being done by National TB Programme Managers and Stop TB Partners and the impact of successful advocacy, communication and social mobilization activities.

However, the World Health Organization report, Global Tuberculosis Control 2008, points out that the pace of progress to control the TB epidemic slowed slightly in 2006 compared to previous years. It also reported a continuing shortage of funds to meet the 2008 targets of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015.

On this occasion, I, on behalf of the Stop TB Partnership, would like to appeal to governments and donors to move forward on two fronts. The first is to engage with new stakeholders, such as NGOs, faith-based organizations and the private sector. We count on our positive collaboration with the Global Health Initiative of the World Economic Forum to further stimulate business engagement in the fight against TB. The second is to increase and sustain funding for implementation of current tools as well as research and development of new diagnostics, drugs and an effective TB vaccine, as outlined in the Global Plan to Stop TB. I call on all our Partners to step up advocacy efforts around the implementation of the Global Plan to Stop TB. I am confident that with the commitment to continue this fight, we will all achieve the ultimate goal of a world free of TB. I look forward to seeing all our partners, reviewing progress and renewing our shared commitment during the Third Stop TB Partners' Forum, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 23-25 March 2009.

Feedback and Subscription

For additional information on the GHI, please contact globalhealth@weforum.org

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