Millenium development goals success event: Partnerships an essential part of progress
27.09.13
Expanding coverage to ensure that nobody falls through the cracks of the system is difficult. Europe offers some great success stories – it’s still a work in progress but the model is working. As more and more countries are looking to implement UHC, European stakeholders have something to export: how to organise public health program, primary care and 21st century hospitals. When I said this at a recent meeting someone tweeted “Bergstrom is a colonialist”. On the contrary, I think that would be a great form of reverse colonialism: to give back something to countries we exploited in the past. We know a great deal about fighting corruption and building UHC. That said, it’s essential to determine best practices that can be adapted to varying contexts. To do so, collaboration is a must – partnerships across the public and private sectors, and at international level are necessary.
This week the United Nations held its MDG Success Event, which aims to accelerate action towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – major development goals set by UN Member States, including in the healthcare field. Progress has been made in meeting the ambitious MDG goals – from decreasing maternal mortality to tackling HIV infection – but challenges remain.
“Accelerating Action, Partnering for Impact”, the slogan of the MDG goals event, sums up the solution – partnership. I’m happy to say that we’ve seen a jump in collaborative efforts in the healthcare field in past years. Cross-sector cooperation between NGOs, governments, and others within the pharmaceutical industry is becoming more common – and we are seeing results. Look at these examples, all public-private partnerships:
- The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) brings together the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the World Bank, and several pharmaceutical companies involved in vaccine manufacture to improve immunization access in developing countries.
- The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) is a non-profit organization created with the cooperation of the Japanese government, a consortium of Japanese pharmaceutical companies, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GHIT promotes the discovery and development of new health technologies for infections diseases prevalent in developing countries.
- The Innovative Medicines Initiative, IMI, a joint undertaking between the European Union and EFPIA, is Europe’s largest public-private initiative and is aimed at speeding development of better and safer medicines, and improving patient access to those medicines.
And those are just some of the more than 200 partnerships pharmaceutical companies have entered into in the interests of advancing health objectives around the world. For me, there’s no doubt that partnerships are key if we are to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The deadline for the MDG is 2015; to be honest, it’s too soon to meet all the goals set forth. Not all will be fulfilled but new goals will be set. Some of the old goals will need to be renewed. Some may see that as disheartening. But I believe: Better to set ambitious goals than to sit around and pat ourselves on the back for reaching those that are easy to achieve. We are on the right path and we will get ever closer to achieving those ambitious goals if we continue to pursue progress through partnerships.
More Information
- Aron Cramer of BSR (Business Social Responsibility) and Eduardo Pisano of IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations) on the need for more cross-sector partnerships to achieve the Millenium Development Goals — Huffington Post.
- This week’s’ speech by President Barroso at the opening of the Special Event on Millennium Development Goals
- The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) aims to accelerate the development of new or improved drugs, vaccines, microbicides and diagnostics against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with focus on phase II and III clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa.
- EFPIA’s Global Health Initiative – a project bringing together diverse stakeholders to discuss global health challenges and determine best practices.
