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September 26, 2013

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Home » Opinion » Foreign Views

Public-private partnerships help achieve health goals

By Eduardo Pisani and Aron Cramer | September 26, 2013, Thursday | Print Edition

WITH less than 800 days before the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals, it’s time to take stock of the milestones achieved and think about what needs to change in order to meet the new goals we will set for post-2015.

With the health-related MGDs, much has been accomplished, including a decrease in maternal and young child mortality, declining HIV infections, and an increased proportion of births attended by skilled health workers.

However, it’s clear that not all the MDGs will be met, particularly those targeting children’s health in the poorest and most rural areas of the world. When it comes to immunizations, for example, vaccines fail to reach nearly 20 million children per year, most of whom are living in Africa.

Closing this gap, and achieving the other global health goals, requires fresh commitments from across all sectors — including industry, governments, multilaterals, NGOs, and other organizations — to cross-sector partnerships that drive system-wide change.

Since the MDGs’ launch in 2000, the number of cross-sector partnerships aimed at advancing health-related goals and involving the pharmaceutical industry has increased dramatically. By bringing together a broad set of stakeholders from the private sector and beyond, pharmaceutical companies initiated and contributed to partnerships tackling many of the barriers that have blocked progress on health goals.

Last year, Business Social Responsibility analyzed more than 200 global health partnerships, and the one common denominator for successful outcomes was a cross-sector approach — with strong commitments from all parties. Today, there are 17 global health partnerships currently underway in China, involving national and regional Chinese government bodies as well as hospitals, patient groups, universities, institutes, foundations and charities. 

These partnerships addressed challenges such as disease awareness and diagnosis, funding deficits, health-care worker knowledge and training, supply chain issues, and gaps in innovation and distribution.

Just one example of this approach is the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) — a partnership which includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the World Bank, and several pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines.

Since its establishment in 2000, this public-private partnership has supported the immunization of 370 million children in over 60 countries including China. Until recently, most of these cross-sector partnerships aligned with the health-related MDGs, which focus on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), malaria, HIV/AIDs, and other infectious diseases.

While those initiatives remain critical, we must do more — with a specific focus on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, cancer, and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, with a projected economic cost of US$47 trillion between 2010 and 2030. 

The original MDGs were conceived without a clear road map for how the private sector could contribute. More than 10 years later, it’s clear from the examples above and hundreds of others that industry plays a critical role in the cross-sector partnerships that are essential to achieving global health goals.

But we can drive more progress if we plan for these collaborations up front.

Eduardo Pisani is director general, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). Aron Cramer is president and CEO, Business Social Responsibility (BSR).

 

Foreign Views


 

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