Tagged: partnerships

  • March 11, 2020

    The future of global development: The shape of U.S. education in the 2020s

    Written by
    Patrick Fine, Chief Executive Officer, FHI 360

    What are the systems, trends and ideas that are shaping education in the United States? What needs to be done to promote transformative education reform?

    In this episode of A Deeper Look podcast, I speak with education reformer Dr. Warren Simmons, currently Senior Policy Advisor at the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. We draw parallels between the challenges in education reform in the United States and in low-income countries, including how inadequate funding models can perpetuate a cycle of poverty and how successful programs can be difficult to scale and replicate. We also discuss the power of local voices and community organizing and the importance of making our education systems more culturally responsive. Dr. Simmons highlights the need for cross-sector partnerships in order to achieve lasting reform and discusses how schools and communities must work together to adapt to the future.

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  • June 19, 2015

    A new funding climate demands unlikely partnerships

    Written by
    Olumide Elegbe, Senior Relationship Manager, FHI 360
    Olumide Elegbe

    Photo: Leanne Gray/FHI 360

    The emergence of the private sector as a development actor is a potentially game-changing trend. The reason for its emergence is clear: Official development assistance to the least developed countries continues to decrease and international human development is increasingly becoming part of the core business of corporations. But what remains open for debate is the scope of the private-sector involvement in global human development and whether corporate money should play a role in global development at all.

    Partnerships between nonprofits and businesses already exist. They range from corporate philanthropy, to corporate social responsibility, to shared value partnerships. Over the past several years, USAID has established an office for transformational partnerships as part of its Global Development Lab, while organizations such as the U.K. Department for International Development have taken an approach that focuses on poverty reduction through market development and catalyzing private enterprise.

    Many large nonprofits are heavily dependent on one donor stream. This means that their systems, processes and tools are geared toward providing services to their largest client, making it potentially difficult to adapt to other partners.

    However, a diversified funding base can make an organization more secure, flexible and responsive. The private sector has expertise that can be leveraged to increase the impact of development programs.

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  • April 24, 2015

    Malaria elimination and the role of partnerships

    An Interview with
    Halima Mwenesi, Director, Infectious Diseases, FHI 360
    Roll Back MalariaWe’re working toward malaria eradication. How close are we?

    Malaria eradication as a shared vision can mobilize stakeholders and much-needed financial resources. The World Health Organization estimates that 584,000 people died from malaria in 2013. So, while that big goal of eradication is important, malaria elimination, which means the end of endemic transmission, is what many countries are aspiring to in the meantime. As noted in the President’s Malaria Initiative’s World Malaria Day report for 2015, the community continues to work toward a vaccine, and we’ve had some impressive successes in reducing mortality and increasing the uptake of prevention measures. But, there is much more to be done in order to defeat malaria.

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  • February 25, 2015

    A unique partnership develops emerging global health researchers

    Written by
    Dr. Timothy Mastro, Director, Global Health, Population and Nutrition, FHI 360

    WASH_ConferenceAd_10yrbadge_blueAt FHI 360, cultivating partnerships and building capacity are high priorities that lead to lasting impact globally. Capacity development in global health has many facets. In the more than 70 countries where we work, many of our global health, population and nutrition programs and research studies include the training of public health workers and scientists. We also value partnerships in the United States that foster the development of the next generation of public health leaders.

    This year marks the 10th anniversary of the FHI 360 and University of North Carolina (UNC) Gillings School of Global Public Health Research Fellowship Program. This relationship provides graduate students from the Gillings School with the opportunity to work side by side with leading global health researchers. For the last decade, FHI 360 and UNC have built and sustained a local partnership through which yearly at least two students from the Gillings School work at FHI 360 and are mentored by our global health research experts.

    Through this program, FHI 360 has had the privilege of working with some of the brightest young minds in the growing field of global health research. Over the years, 23 fellows have worked on a wide range of topics, generated research protocols, analyzed data, written manuscripts for scientific journals and developed technical skills that are essential to global health research.

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  • May 14, 2013

    The power of public–private partnerships in tackling global health challenges

    Written by
    Camille Saadé, Senior Project Director for Partnerships, FHI 360

    This week, GBCHealth will bring together some of the most prominent private-sector leaders in the world to discuss strategies for tackling pressing global health challenges. This year’s GBCHealth conference will focus on how business can better align its work with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The fourth MDG is to reduce mortality for children under 5 years old. The biggest threats to young children are pneumonia and diarrheal diseases, which are the cause of nearly 2 million deaths a year in children under 5 years old. The good news is that there is a simple way to prevent much of the spread of these two diseases: handwashing. And the private sector has been on the forefront of promoting handwashing in developing countries for more than a decade.

    In 2000, I co-founded the Global Public–Private Partnership for Handwashing along with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the World Bank/ Water and Sanitation Program. Today, FHI 360 operates the secretariat for the partnership, and our membership has expanded to include Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Colgate-Palmolive, the University of Buffalo, the World Health Organization, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. Each member of our partnership contributes financial resources, skills or time.

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