Today was the opening day for the 36th Annual International Conference on Global Health (#GHC36), being held in Washington D.C. by the Global Health Council.  This conference looks like it will be a promising five-day dosage of:

(also known as this year’s theme)

After arriving in the morning, I caught the tail-end of an auxiliary event held by Chemonics International (www.chemonics.com), an international development consulting firm, that provided a snapshot of many of their multi-sectoral approaches in harnessing the facets of the private sector for health.  Chemonics was founded 34 years ago, and the firm is grounded by the acronym AIMS – achievement, innovating, measurable, sharing.  Interestingly, Chemonics uses a total market approach for one of their projects – the only project within USAID’s worldwide portfolio that does so.  In the international health space, cost-effectiveness analyses, willingness-to-pay studies, and other economic models seem to be increasing in use, and these were among several strategies for their activities.

Some of their other current activities include involving the private sector with:
•  DOTS – the tuberculosis strategy for control and prevention – in countries where the private sector is the health provider of choice (approximately 70% of individuals seek true care from the private sector in the Philippines)
•  HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment with capacity enhancement through economic rehabilitation
•  stimulating rural competitiveness in Bolivia and providing business support in Kosovo
•  management information systems with computers at each health clinic (in development: a $200, 1.6 gigabyte computer with capabilities to connect with a SIM card)
•  market access for rural development by increasing the value of agriculture and by encouraging gardens in Nepal

This last one got my mind working.  I read once that in Nepal, women carry heavy loads up to 20 kg for up to 20 kilometers for up to an estimated 20 hours a week to attempt to satisfy high household energy demands. Can you imagine?  (If you are curious, you can search for an image of a “doko” which is the contraption that allows women to carry such heavy loads.  Dokos are usually equipped with a carrying strap that can wrap around a woman’s forehead.)  Not only does a woman’s body require more caloric intake after retrieving wood for fuel and fetching water for the household, but the load lifting and carrying puts a strain on abdominal muscles.  This can lead to uterine prolapse and miscarriage if these household activities are performed during or after pregnancy. Encouraging gardens would improve nutrition, but if these gardens were linked with solar food dryers, households could benefit from having nutritious food year round and not just during harvest season.

This emphasis on weaving together the private sector can have positive effects on worldwide health and quality of life, but it is important that these approaches are evidence-based and involve collaborations with the public sector.  Through this snapshot of projects, Chemonics International demonstrated how new technologies and proven strategies with a multi-sectoral approach can lead to healthy communities.

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Tomorrow, I am looking forward to hearing Ashifi Gogo speak during the plenary session on “Transformations: Discovering New Strategies using Proven Technologies”.  Gogo is a founder of mPedigree, a non-profit that advocates for mobile health solutions to counterfeit drugs – an issue that truly has global implications and demands a critical need for worldwide tracking.

On Thursday, the conference has Hans Rosling scheduled as the special keynote speaker, and he will be speaking about “Facts and Fiction about Global Health”.  If you haven’t seen Rosling lecture, he is quite animated and is pushing forward a movement towards user-friendly, global trend data visualization, on top of his 20-years of experience in global health research.