Millennium Foundation

Last updated

Millennium Foundation
Founded2008
FocusHealth: HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis
Location
Area served
Global
Method Innovative financing
Website Official Website

The Millennium Foundation for Innovative Finance for Health is an independent, non-profit Swiss organization, established in November 2008 in order to create new ways to finance health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the Millennium Foundation aims to ensure that international commitments on improving health care are met through the development of innovative financing projects. Its first such project – called MassiveGood – was launched on 4 March, and will give travelers the possibility to add a $2, £2 or €2 micro-contribution to the purchase of a travel reservation, with all proceeds going to the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. [1]

Contents

Mission and Activities

In 2000 the United Nations agreed to achieve eight international development goals by the year 2015, called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). [2] Three of these goals are health related – to treat and fight life-threatening diseases, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; to reduce childhood mortality; and to improve maternal health. Despite repeated commitments to the three health-related MDGs and increased funding available for development, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis still have appalling human and economic consequences in developing countries. [3] [4] [5] Official Development Assistance has been increasing in the past few years but cannot keep up with the damage done by the economic crisis on low- and middle-income countries. [6] In order to bridge this financing gap, the international community has looked into new funding mechanisms. The Taskforce on Innovative International Funding for Health Systems issued in June 2009 a report [7] acknowledging the potential of innovative sources of funding: Innovative Financing projects that have sprouted up in the past decade include Product Red, [8] the International Finance Facility for Immunization, [9] the Global Fund, [10] the GAVI [11] and UNITAID. [12] [13] UNITAID is funded by a small tax on airlines tickets levied in 12 countries and budgetary contributions from 17 countries. Since 2006, UNITAID has committed over US$730 million to support 16 projects in 93 countries. [14]

MassiveGood

MassiveGood, the Millennium Foundation's first innovative finance project, was unveiled at the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September 2009 during a meeting of the Task Force for Innovative Finance for Health, spearheaded by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and World Bank President Robert Zoellick. The original idea was conceived by Jean-François Rial, the head of a French travel agency, after officials from George W. Bush's administration rejected the idea of a tax on airline tickets in the United States. [15] MassiveGood gave travelers the option to make a $2, €2 or £2 micro-contribution towards major global health causes when they bought an airline ticket, reserved a hotel room, rented a car, or travel product. [16] Funds were used to provide drugs to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. [17] [18]

These contributions went to the Spanish Red Cross and UNITAID, [19] which has a wide range of partners in developing countries including the Clinton Foundation, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, the Global Fund, the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership, Stop TB Partnership and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. [20] Additional funding was aimed towards improving maternal and child health in the developing world. [21] Supporters of the project included Bill Clinton, will.i.am, Samuel L. Jackson, Susan Sarandon, David Guetta, Spike Lee, Mary J. Blige, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Paul Auster and Brian Greene. [22] [23]

MassiveGood was launched on 4 March 2010 in the US, and successfully rolled out in Spain in June 2010. [19] It was discontinued by the Board of the Millennium Foundation on 4 November 2011, citing insufficient returns "for such a micro-philanthropy initiative in today’s economic climate". [19] [24]

Structure

The Millennium Foundation is a public-private initiative governed by a Board composed of representatives of participating Governments, such as the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Brazil, Chile, the Republic of Korea and a representative of the African Union; representatives of NGOs working on malaria, tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS and of communities living with diseases; and representatives of the Gates Foundation and of the private sector. The UN World Health Organization serves on the board as an observer. [25] The Board of the Millennium Foundation is chaired by Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy, who currently serves as Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development [26] to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, and also acts as Chairman of the Board of UNITAID. Mr. Henk Mulder is the Managing Director and leads the strategic vision for the Foundation.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philippe Douste-Blazy</span> French politician

Philippe Douste-Blazy is a French United Nations official and former centre-right politician. Over the course of his career, he served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development in the UN and chairman of UNITAID.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria</span> International organization

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to support attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations". This multistakeholder international organization maintains its secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization began operations in January 2002. Microsoft founder Bill Gates was one of the first donors to provide seed money for the partnership. From January 2006 it has benefited from certain US Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities under executive order 13395, which conferred International Organizations Immunities Act status on it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gunilla Carlsson</span> Swedish politician

Anna Gunilla Carlsson is a Swedish politician and a member of the Moderate Party. She served as Minister for International Development Cooperation from 2006 to 2013, member of the Swedish Riksdag from 2002 to 2013 and deputy chairman of her party from 2003 to 2015.

Sir Richard George Andrew Feachem, KBE, FREng is professor of global health at both the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley, and director of the Global Health Group at UCSF Global Health Sciences. He is also a visiting professor at the University of London and an honorary professor at the University of Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unitaid</span> Global health initiative

Unitaid is a global health initiative that works with partners to bring about innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat major diseases in low- and middle-income countries, with an emphasis on tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS and its deadly co-infections. Founded in 2006, the organization funds the final stages of research and development of new drugs, diagnostics and disease-prevention tools, helps produce data supporting guidelines for their use, and works to allow more affordable generic medicines to enter the marketplace in low- and middle-income countries. Hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Unitaid was established by the governments of Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Awa Marie Coll-Seck</span> Senegalese infectious diseases specialist and politician

Awa Marie Coll-Seck is as Senegalese infectious diseases specialist and politician who served as Minister of Health of Senegal from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2012 to 2017. She also served as former Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and is on the board of directors of several notable global health organizations. She is an agenda contributor of the World Economic Forum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seth Berkley</span> American medical epidemiologist

Seth Franklin Berkley is an American medical epidemiologist and a global advocate of the power of vaccines. He is the founder and former president and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and former CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. He is currently a senior advisor to the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HIV/AIDS in Lesotho</span>

HIV/AIDS in Lesotho constitutes a very serious threat to Basotho and to Lesotho's economic development. Since its initial detection in 1986, HIV/AIDS has spread at alarming rates in Lesotho. In 2000, King Letsie III declared HIV/AIDS a natural disaster. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) in 2016, Lesotho's adult prevalence rate of 25% is the second highest in the world, following Eswatini.

Cases of HIV/AIDS in Peru are considered to have reached the level of a concentrated epidemic.

Innovative financing refers to a range of non-traditional mechanisms to raise additional funds for development aid through "innovative" projects such as micro-contributions, taxes, public-private partnerships and market-based financial transactions.

Global Health Initiatives (GHIs) are humanitarian initiatives that raise and disburse additional funds for infectious diseases – such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – for immunizations and for strengthening health systems in developing countries. GHIs classify a type of global initiative, which is defined as an organized effort integrating the involvement of organizations, individuals, and stakeholders around the world to address a global issue.

The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) is a Unitaid-backed international organisation founded in July 2010, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its public health driven business model aims to lower the prices of HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C medicines and facilitate the development of better-adapted HIV treatments through voluntary licensing and patent pooling. Its goal is to improve access to affordable and appropriate HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis medicines in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). In May 2020, the MPP become an implementing partner of the WHO's Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carole Presern</span>

Carole Presern has been executive director of The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) since January 2011.

Dr. Debrework Zewdie, former director of the World Bank Global AIDS Program and Deputy Executive Director and COO of the Global Fund, is an Ethiopian national who has led strategy, policy implementation, and management of development programs at country, regional, and global levels for international bodies such as the World Bank and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. As an immunologist, she conceptualized and managed the groundbreaking US$1 billion Multi-country HIV/AIDS Program that changed the AIDS funding landscape and pioneered the large-scale multi-sectorial response with direct financing to civil society and the private sector. Dr. Zewdie led the articulation of the World Bank's first global strategy on HIV/AIDS and the Global HIV/AIDS Program of Action. As a founding UNAIDS Global Coordinator, she has been instrumental in making the unique cooperative structure of the UNAIDS family a working reality, fostering strong inter-agency partnerships. She is an advocate for women's health and was a founding vice president and member of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa (SWAA). She established institutional rigor at the Global Fund and led its wide-ranging internal reform which culminated in the ongoing corporate transformation program. Dr. Zewdie has a Ph.D. in clinical immunology from the University of London, a postdoctoral fellowship at SYVA Company, and was a Senior MacArthur Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. Dr. Zewdie was a Richard L. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2015. During her Fellowship at the Harvard Chan School, she also participated as a speaker on Voices in Leadership, an original webcast series, in a discussion titled, "Leadership in Getting AIDS on the World Bank Agenda", moderated by Dr. Barry Bloom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volodymyr Zhovtyak</span>

Volodymyr Zhovtyak is a Ukrainian social activist and a human rights defender. He is one of the leaders of the movement of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ukraine, and in the region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. He is one of the founders of the national and international non-governmental organizations of PLWH, which collaborates with institutions of the United Nations, the European Union and the USA, as well as with the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidential Administration of Ukraine.

This page is a timeline of global health, including major conferences, interventions, cures, and crises.

Robert Michael Hecht is an American global health policy and financing expert. Hecht is currently Founder and President of Pharos Global Health Advisors. He has previously held positions with the World Bank, UNAIDS, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and Results for Development Institute. He serves as a lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and is a clinical professor at the Yale School of Public Health. He has published on a range of topics in global health and development, with a special focus on the economics, financing, and policies for infectious diseases, nutrition, and broader health system reform. He has been an advisor to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the World Health Organization, and UNITAID. Hecht holds a BA from Yale and a PhD from Cambridge University.

Dr. Winnie Mpanju-Shumbusho is a Tanzanian paediatrician and public health leader who until December 31, 2015, served as World Health Organization (WHO) Assistant Director General for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases based in Geneva, Switzerland. From 2016 to 2019, she served as board chair of RBM Partnership To End Malaria. Before joining WHO in 1999, Mpanju-Shumbusho was Director General of The East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA-HC) formerly known as the Commonwealth Regional Health Community for East, Central and Southern Africa (CRHC-ECSA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mariam Jashi</span> Georgian politician

Mariam Jashi is a Georgian politician and senior policymaker in Global Health, Sustainable Development and Innovative Financing. She is the board member of the Global Parliamentarians Network UNITE, Former Member of Parliament of Georgia, Chairperson of the first Parliamentary Fraction of Independent MPs, President of the Leading Group on Innovative Financing for Development, Chairperson of Education, Science and Culture Committee of the Parliament, Deputy Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs and UNICEF Officer in complex humanitarian and emergency settings. After completing her medical and public health degrees at AIETI and Tbilisi State University, she graduated from Harvard Kennedy School of Government as Edwards S. Mason Fellow.

References

  1. ↑ Strom, Stephanie (22 September 2009). "Fee on Airline Tickets Will Help Fight Life-Threatening Diseases". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  2. ↑ "United Nations Millennium Development Goals". Un.org. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  3. ↑ "AIDS epidemic update" (PDF). UNAIDS. November 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "WHO | World Malaria Report 2009". Who.int. 15 December 2009. Archived from the original on 23 December 2009. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  5. ↑ "One third of world's population has tuberculosis bacterium". The Telegraph. London. 6 January 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "Development aid at its highest level ever in 2008". Oecd.org. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  7. ↑ "Final Taskforce Report" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  8. ↑ "Tweet @ Whitehouse". JoinRed. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  9. ↑ "International Finance Facility for Immunisation". Iff-immunisation.org. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  10. ↑ "Home - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria". Theglobalfund.org. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "GAVI Alliance". GAVI Alliance. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  12. ↑ "Unitaid". Unitaid.eu. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  13. ↑ "How innovative financing works". Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  14. ↑ Archived 27 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ Douste-Blazy, Philippe; Altman, Daniel. Power in Numbers: UNITAID, Innovative Financing, and the Quest for Massive Good.
  16. ↑ Gumbel, Peter (18 September 2009). "New Airline-Ticket Tax to Aid the Developing World". time.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2010.
  17. ↑ Joshua Freed (23 September 2009). "Buy an airline ticket, donate to UN health fund". usatoday.com. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  18. ↑ Peter Orengo (19 October 2010). "Experts seek new options to fund health services". standardmedia.co.ke. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  19. 1 2 3 "MASSIVEGOOD update, November 2011". MassiveGood. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  20. ↑ "PARTNERS: working towards the common goal of expanding access to health". Archived from the original on 30 May 2009. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
  21. ↑ Stephanie Strom (22 September 2009). "Travelers' Fee Can Help Fight Diseases". The New York Times . Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  22. ↑ Simona Rabinovitch (26 February 2010). "Stars ask travelers to contribute to global health". theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  23. ↑ Rachel Cernansky (5 March 2010). "Bill Clinton, will.i.am, Ban Ki-Moon Launch MassiveGood". planetgreen.discovery.com. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
  24. ↑ "New direction for MassiveGood". Archived from the original on 28 November 2011.
  25. ↑ "Innovative finance for health". Millennium Foundation. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
  26. ↑ Douste, Philippe (1 January 2010). "A Few Dollars at a Time". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 21 October 2011.{{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.