Political will and engagement of the people affected is crucial to the success of any movement. Global solidarity is a primary driver for change, which only occurs through a people centric approach that engages the private sector, and integrates science and technology. MDG #6, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, was achieved 9 months before timeframe, and is the first UN goal to be achieved ahead of time [Sidibé]. Utilizing Canada’s Aid Effectiveness Agenda, donors coordinated with their country leadership, and this opportunity for large scale program under ministries of health and education was successful in concentrating efforts and enhancing capacity rather than diffusing it through competing projects [Paradis]. New approaches such as GAVI’s facilitated the scaling up of successful pilots and led to focused results. Partnerships such as the Global Fund showcased strengths of various partners; innovation and risk tolerance of private sector, track record and experience of bilateral donors, resources of multilateral development banks, and leadership and contextual knowledge of country partners [Paradis]. Lessons learned include the need for broader partnerships, an information culture of good data, regular reporting and transparency, and innovation in all aspects of global health architecture, from technology to communication of cost-effective tools.

Next Steps

It is important to think about the next five years as an opportunity to break the backbone of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and prevent its resurface. Global health security will never happen without individual health risk management [Sidibé]. In order to achieve a new paradigm in global health, every organization needs to engage the private sector, civil society, and government agencies. We must continue to reexamine and reinvent our approaches to work more strategically with actors from all sectors of society and develop and finance interventions that ensure healthier lives for all [Paradis].

Outcomes

The global health community has adopted a more integrative perspective in its work with the private sector, multilateral organizations and governments, the focus is now to continue this work and engage partners across sectors to take innovations to scale. The SDGs bring attention to a gap in funding for critical health, education, food security and climate adaptation issues across the world [Paradis]. Power of blended finance is being harnessed to increase investment in emerging markets health issues such as maternal newborn and child health (MNCH). Canada supports the Global Financing Facility as a model for sustainable financing and sees it as an opportunity for private sector to co-invest in the health of populations in needs. Canada is also working with the Word Economic Forum (WEF) and other partners on the redesigning of development finance initiative effectively identify and promote innovative solutions to finance the world’s development needs. One such collaboration is in the development of Convergence, the first platform available for sharing knowledge and forging blended finance partnerships [Paradis]. In addition to holding all partners involved to the same degree of transparency and accountability, governments, private sector and civil society need to speak the same language to decrease complexity in global health investment. It is only in the combination of skills and core competencies of various sectors that global challengeds can be solved, therefore in addition in to blended finance, we need blended responsibility [Cohen]. While agreeing with this unified approach, Terri Bresenham of GE Healthcare stressed the need to co-create solutions to these challenges with the people affected and those expected to sustain those initiatives in the communities. This inclusion will keep us from replicating western models in developing countries, and instead build models that are tailored to their economy and are culturally sensitive [Bresenham].

BD has demonstrated how impactful and profitable partnerships can be by working with WHO and Grand Challenges Canada to bring the Odon device to scale. This device was created by an Argentinian mechanic and has revolutionized maternal newborn and child health by addressing obstructed and prolonged second stage labor, the cause of up to 25 percent of maternal and newborn mortality [Cohen]. In partnership with Canada and Global Health Investment Fund, BD is launching two new diagnostic tests for preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, two leading causes of maternal mortality. Initial innovation is only a part of the battle, the heavy lifting is getting products to scale, and large companies can tap on existing competencies for that. GE has been working with domestic and multinational partners and agencies such as WHO and IFC to raise awareness of affordable interventions, promote localization of engineering, mechanism and ownership of interventions, innovate the business model to emphasize a win-win approach, and invest in skills development and education. Through its partnership with the Kenyan government, GE not only brought state of the art diagnostics to 98 hospitals across the country, but was also critical in building capacity and training leadership and management to strengthen Kenya’s healthcare system. GE training of workers, and introduction of compact ultrasound 3D imaging technologies in hard to reach areas proved how impactful it is to not only design tools for the intended environment but to also involve the citizens in those areas [Bresenham].

Next Steps

The SDGs have identified the needs, it’s now time to find ways to finance them. Canada intends to establish a development finance initiative to provide financing to companies operating in low and middle income countries with activities complimenting Canada’s international assistance priorities. In order to encourage private sector investment in health, new approaches need to be data driven, which enables them to achieve tangible results. Transparency and accountability need to be maintained for all partners to address risks and uncertainties plaguing investments in emerging markets. There is a need for the new business model in global health to include both blended finance and responsibility, but also have a micro economic reward for all involved. We need to continue to support platforms that allow actors to know what is happening in the global health community and avoid duplication of efforts.

The UN recognized the great opportunity GFF has as the world first consolidated financing instrument for maternal, newborn and child health and got involved right away. Its housing in the Word Bank Group facilitates the de-risking of investments, and allow poor countries without previous access to World Bank funds to benefit from this model. The core of the GFF is the engagement of the private sector and its diverse entities. Private sector is not only useful for financial resource, but for its expertise and technology innovations [Basu]. Norway has been a great leader for maternal, newborn and child health, and was one of the first country to mobilize private sector through the Every Women Every Child initiative. Norway supports GFF because it recognizes that as we move into the post 2015 era, ODA will continue to decrease and needs to be linked to both domestic financing and private sector through the World Bank, which already engages the private sector. GFF builds on the Health Results Innovation Trust Fund, created in 2007 and supported by the governments of Norway and UK [Godal]. The Trust Fund is in fact a part of GFF, which brings together multiple partners to align behind country plans and achieve results on the ground. The success of GFF rests on its three pillars; smart financing through high impact cost effective interventions at the country level, scaling up using private sector and already available domestic resources, and sustainability by helping countries grow their domestic resources to help their transition from low to middle income countries without losing support. GFF investment cases recognize the issue of bottlenecks in the health system in terms of human resources and supply chain [World Bank representative]. The private sector can be seen as early stage investors instead of philanthropists, and leads innovation by providing new ways of doing things, from financing to scaling up. GE Foundation built a cost effective scalable oxygen generators distribution system that could be built at the district level and supply regional hospitals with canisters of oxygen at a very reasonable price. This was a creative investments with little initial risks that’s now in need for sustainable capital to scale it. Private sector has skillsets in business, manufacturing education and training that will be of great value to the global health environment. There was a call for more creative and tactful partnerships. David Barash of GE Healthcare proposed adding another “P” to PPP, making it Public-Private-Private partnerships, stressing the need for greater collaboration between private sector members. As each them bring different skillsets to the table, encouraging members of private sector to work with each other with the support of GFF would lead to greater impact and efficiency [Barash] GFF will need the private sector’s help in reaching out to new players in the field [Pablos-Méndez]. The World Bank has set up an investors group to help incentivize private sector and prioritize needs in a very dynamic environment. The prioritization and appropriation of GFF funds is very country specific [World Bank representative]. Norway sees health and education as the most important investments to build country resilience and prevent future crises [Godal]. GE Healthcare pointed out the need to have infrastructure in place to process geopolitical crises in a way that easily engages public and private sectors. Agreeing with Norway’s view on health and education as key to preventing future outbreak, David Barash attributed the success to GE’s partnership with Last Mile Health in Liberia to their strong commitment to health worker programs as a tool to strengthen health systems and prevent outbreaks [Barash]. Investments being made have to involve health systems; human and infrastructure resources need to be considered when investing in specific services [Pablos-Méndez].