Read GBCHealth and Sentinel Consulting’s Study on Global Wellness Programs

GBCHealth and Sentinel Consulting Ltd. have released a study of 40 corporations and non-governmental organizations currently implementing wellness programs in 31 low- and middle-income countries. The study, Wellness for a Global Workforce, provides a snapshot of these programs to share what works best and what has the greatest impact.

The report documents the motivations for developing programs and the health conditions and risk factors most often targeted. It also reviews how programs are implemented and evaluated and useful lessons learned by program custodians. Finally, the study aims to help companies by including a checklist for program managers developing a wellness program for their own organization. Read report.

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Global Fund Board Meeting Next Week to Feature New Leadership

June 18-19 | Colombo, Sri Lanka

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will convene its next Board meeting on June 18-19 in Sri Lanka. The meeting will focus on continuing reforms to the Fund’s grant-making model and the appointment of a new Inspector General to oversee audits and investigations. It will also mark several key changes in Global Fund leadership, as it will be the first Board meeting under the direction of new Executive Director, Dr. Mark Dybul; the current Board Chair and Vice Chair will end their terms at the conclusion of the meeting; and Dr. Brian Brink (Anglo American plc) will step down from his position as Private Sector Delegation (PSD) Board representative. Paul Schaper (Merck) has been elected to serve as the new PSD Board Member and Renuka Gadde (BD) was re-elected to serve as the Alternate Board Member.

GBCHealth commends the outgoing leadership for steering the Global Fund through sweeping transformations over the past few years. GBCHealth also welcomes and congratulates the new private sector Board representatives and looks forward to working with them in the Fund's new era. Read more.

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GBCHealth Session at CSR Asia – The Future of Health

September 17 | Bangkok, Thailand

How can countries in Asia—both rich and poor—keep improving their health standards given limited resources? How can health systems address the ever-rising needs of the people they serve without placing unrealistic demands on national budgets? A GBCHealth-organized session at this year’s CSR Asia Summit will discuss the significant role that business is playing to complement and support government efforts. This panel will share best practice examples of sustainable corporate engagement in current public health issues from Pfizer Inc., the International Planned Parenthood Federation and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company). Learn how such initiatives are created in alignment with corporate missions and hear about the strategic benefits to such programs. Learn more.

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Ray Chambers Appoints New Leadership to His Special Envoy's Office

Ray Chambers, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Millennium Development Goals and for Malaria, has announced several leadership changes.

The MDG Health Alliance will merge with the UN Special Envoy office and Suprotik Basu, who has served as Managing Director for Chambers’ Special Envoy Office, will become CEO of a newly combined organization focused on the financing and achievement of the health MDGs. Basu's oversight will include both the Special Envoy Office and the MDG Health Alliance.

Basu will succeed Gary Cohen, Executive Vice President at BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), who has served as CEO of the MDG Health Alliance since January 2013. Stepping out of the role will allow Cohen to devote more time to his work as Acting CEO of GBCHealth.

In addition, David Alport, who has served as Vice President of Communications for GBCHealth for the past three years, will assume the role of Senior Vice President of Communications for the Special Envoy Office and for the MDG Health Alliance. Read more.

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International Zinc Association Supports Efforts to Reduce Child Diarrhea Deaths in India

The International Zinc Association (IZA) announced that it will support a program with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to scale up zinc and oral rehydration salts (ORS) to reduce child diarrhea deaths in Uttar Pradesh, India.

With this commitment, IZA supports the Mining Compact for Child Health. The Compact, co-led by GBCHealth and the MDG Health Alliance, urges the mining industry to help save children’s lives by increasing access to zinc and ORS—two essential tools to fight childhood diarrhea. IZA is a non-profit organization that represents the global zinc industry. The commitment represents a success in steering mining business zinc programs to countries with the highest need. Read more.

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GBCHealth Speaks at 66th Session of the World Health Assembly

20-28 May | Geneva, Switzerland

GBCHealth Executive Director Michael Schreiber spoke at two side events of the World Health Assembly last month, focusing on universal health coverage and women and children’s health.

Schreiber was a panelist at the Volunteerism and Universal Health Coverage event along with prominent government and non-profit global health leaders. Participants spoke about the essential role that trained volunteers can play in bridging the last mile between access to health care and the most remote communities and marginalized groups.

The “Securing the Future: Saving the Lives of Women and Children” event, which focused on increasing access to essential medicines and supplies in the world’s poorest countries, also featured Schreiber. This session for ministers and senior global health professionals highlighted the impact of innovation and of overcoming barriers to healthcare access and financing challenges.

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Pneumonia Roundtable Attracts 100 Leading Global Stakeholders in Child Survival

April 30, 2013 | New York, USA

With fewer than 1,000 days to prevent the deaths of 4.4 million children under 5 and achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4, child survival stakeholders assembled in New York City to discuss how to accelerate reductions in child pneumonia deaths. Last year pneumonia killed about 1.3 million children under 5. Achieving MDG 4 will require the prevention of at least 800,000 child deaths due to pneumonia by 2015.

The event, with participation from donors, governments, implementing agencies, corporations and academic institutions, sought to define what an ideal program to reduce child pneumonia deaths would look like.

Attendees agreed that best practice pneumonia demonstration projects were needed in the five countries with the highest burden of of under 5 pneumonia deaths – India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Read more.

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Women Deliver Conference Puts Women on the Forefront of Development Agenda

May 28-30 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

More than 4,500 delegates from 149 countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur on May 28-30 for Women Deliver 2013, the largest and most influential conference on girls’ and women’s health and rights. Leading voices presented, including Melinda Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Cecile Richards, CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America; and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Corporate partners included GBCHealth members Merck & Co, Bayer and Johnson & Johnson. The conference shared insights from global experts on maternal health, family planning, gender equality, women and girls' education, violence against women, and the crucial role of women in the attainment of the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. Women Deliver also launched a publication laying out the economic benefits of investing in reproductive health. Watch key sessions and plenaries from the Women Deliver 2013 Conference here.

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MEMBER SPOTLIGHTS

Johnson & Johnson joins (RED) to support the Global Fund

GBCHealth member Johnson & Johnson has announced a new campaign with Product (RED) to support the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. J&J will donate $1 to the Global Fund every time an infographic, which charts the reduction of HIV infection rates to near zero by 2015, is shared on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, raising up to $100,000.

Join the Share (RED) campaign here.

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Watch EXPOSED: The Race Against Tuberculosis

GBCHealth member Aeras has produced EXPOSED, a four-part series of short films that tells the story of the deadly global epidemic of tuberculosis (TB). The series focuses on efforts to halt the disease, which is growing more difficult to control, as well as the urgent movement to develop new tools to prevent it. Spanning locations as diverse as Cape Town, Delhi and Tennessee, USA, the films document personal battles with TB as well as broader efforts to protect communities from the disease. By telling the stories of four inspiring individuals interspersed with expert commentary from some of the world’s top TB physicians, scientists, advocates and policymakers, EXPOSED brings viewers to the forefront of the race against tuberculosis.

Aeras is a nonprofit biotech advancing tuberculosis vaccines. The films are available at http://exposed.aeras.org/. Send questions, comments or screening plans to film@aeras.org.

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Third Annual Global Shared Value Leadership Summit

May 23 | Cambridge, Mass., USA

"Shared value is capitalism, full stop," Professor Michael Porter told the audience at the 3rd Annual Global Shared Value Leadership Summit. Shared value—defined by Porter as integrating societal issues and challenges into economic value creation—is rapidly gaining ground among companies in many industries. “And,” Porter added, “it’s magic. The magic of capitalism is that we can scale. And it's self-sustaining.” In other words, unlike more traditional corporate social responsibility efforts, shared value initiatives can grow in size and sustain themselves, precisely because they create business value as well as social benefit. Porter added that some stakeholders still believe economic success is inconsistent with social benefit, countering that view by telling the invitation-only gathering of companies and their partners, “It's MORE worthy to do this profitably because you can do more of it!”

GBCHealth member FSG, which hosted the summit, has created the Shared Value Initiative, a global community of practice among leading companies, civil society, and government organizations to drive adoption and implementation of shared value strategies. Read more.

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BD CEO Shares Insights about Shared Value in Harvard Business Review

Shared value is attracting a number of proponents among the GBCHealth membership base. Becton, Dickinson and Company CEO Vince Forlenza, who spoke at the Shared Value Summit described above, also discussed BD’s expression of that approach through its Global Health Initiative in a recent Harvard Business Review blog post. The Global Health Initiative finds sustainable ways to strengthen over-burdened and under-resourced health care systems in developing countries by providing technical assistance, increasing access to products and designing medical technologies for resource-limited settings. One of the key tenets of this initiative is partnership-building. “Addressing systemic problems requires long-term commitment and cross-sector collaboration,” Forlenza writes. In his piece, Forlenza shares insights that BD has gained in its efforts to marry public health and business objectives and to strengthen health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Read blog post.

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Jhpiego and Partners Unveil e-Learning Modules to Reduce Maternal Deaths

Jhpiego, UNFPA, Intel and the World Health Organization (WHO) have introduced e-learning modules to strengthen the skills of midwives and other health care providers in managing pregnancy-related complications, such as obstructed labor, excessive bleeding after birth and pre-eclampsia/eclampsia.

The e-learning modules were unveiled at the Second Global Midwifery Symposium in Kuala Lumpur, prior to the Women Deliver Conference. “It allows countries to customize what’s best for their countries. Most importantly, it is about bringing training solutions to the people, rather than the people to the training solutions,” said Dr. Leslie Mancuso, Jhpiego President and CEO. Read press release.

Jhpiego, which is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and has worked in over 155 countries to prevent the deaths of women and their families, will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a gala on June 24th in Baltimore, Maryland. Meanwhile, staff from around the world have begun celebrating with events, including the Liberia team’s three-mile walk -- the distance that many pregnant women must travel from their home to a health facility for antenatal visits and to give birth -- to “stomp out” maternal and newborn deaths. Read more.

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