International Health Partners (IHP) and the Department of State for Health and Social Welfare of The Gambia formally launched the Gambia Health Alliance (GHA) today, signing a Declaration which was also signed by the Country Representative of the World Health Organisation and the Country Director of Voluntary Services Overseas.
The GHA is an international collaborative venture to encourage the donation of skills, goods and services, from international donors in the public and private sectors, to help the Government build the capacity and expertise of its health service to meet the 3 health-related Millennium Development Goals by 2015. The GHA is the first public-private-NGO partnership of its type in Africa, specifically seeking to attract resources in a strategic way to enable sustainable improvements to be made.
Anthony Dunnett, President of International Health Partners UK, said: “The GHA brings companies together with NGOs to meet the needs for some of the specific skills, goods and services that are not available locally. We already have three global companies looking to partner with local NGOs and the Gambian Government to deliver programmes that will change the face of health provision in those priority clinical areas of need.”
Background
Many companies wish to engage, both through their staff, and corporately, in sustainable projects to help build up the capacity of healthcare systems in the developing world as part of their commitment to corporate social responsibility. The problems faced by Ministries of Health also require the concerted involvement of a number of companies, since the requisite expertise and resources are rarely available from one particular source. Typically, the NGOs assisting in the delivery of health system projects are not able to access the expertise and skills they need since they do not have the appropriate connections into the private sector.
The GHA is a practical collaboration which brings all these parties together. IHP acts as the facilitator and project manager, broking the various partners seeking to collaborate to provide the specific skills and resources. Over the last 12 months IHP has provided over £1m of first quality donated medicines to The Gambia to meet specific needs.
The Declaration was signed by Dr Malick Njie, Secretary of State and Mr Sulayman Samba, Permanent Secretary. Anthony Dunnett (President), Alex Harris (Industry Director) and George Rocke (International Director) signed on behalf of IHP.