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Largely funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, these public private partnerships are growing. They include the Medicines for Malaria Venture, which brings together government agencies, research institutions, and private companies to explore ways to develop and deliver new antimalarial drugs.

POLL:

To facilitate research into diseases primarily impacting those in the developing world, advocates have also called for an overhaul of the patent system. While patent laws give pharmaceutical companies financial incentives to develop new drugs, they often prevent developing countries from getting access to cheap, generic medicines that they need to save lives. As a broader attempt to reconcile the needs of both companies and patients, the Center for Global Development—through an initiative called Making Markets for Vaccines—has proposed market-based solutions to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in researching new vaccines for developing countries.

Examining Root Causes

© International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies / John HaskewWhile developing new drugs is certainly one approach to treating those afflicted with life-threatening diseases, many would argue that poverty is the main cause of the diseases prevalent in low-income countries. In fact, the WHO estimates that diseases associated with poverty account for about half of years of life lost to ill health in the poorest countries.

A number of civil society organizations working in the health sector argued before the UN last October that, although global health partnerships were critical to addressing the problems in developing countries, they would not have much impact if “neither poverty-related root causes of ill health nor strengthening of health systems [was] addressed.”

Those living in slum communities, for example, often have little access to basic amenities like water and sanitation. Indoor air pollution from cooking fuels, food contamination, and crowded, ramshackle dwellings open to the elements all promote illness.

Environment Links

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland adds that “poverty and ill health are among the main driving

“We all know that good medical care is vital,” says Dr. Paulo Ivo Garrido, minister of health for the Republic of Mozambique, “but unless the root social causes that undermine people’s health are addressed, the opportunity for well being will not be achieved.”

forces behind environmental degradation and a healthy environment is essential for good health and effective poverty alleviation.” In contrast, deforestation can exacerbate diseases like malaria, unclean water can carry cholera, and air pollution can cause respiratory infections.

While the connections between health, poverty, and the environment are increasingly discussed in international fora, programs that link them still seem rare. But, there are exceptions. The Partnership for Clean Indoor Air is one. Claiming that nearly 2 million people die yearly because of indoor air pollution from traditional open-fire cook stoves, one of the nonprofits involved in this coalition, Trees, Water & People, has worked with local partners in several countries in Central America to install safer and more fuel-efficient stoves in homes. Various international organizations are also involved in supplying potable water to poor

Discover worthy campaigns to improve global health

communities—UNICEF is a major funder and there are initiatives like the CARE campaign that helped three million people in 34 countries gain access to clean water and sanitation, reducing the illness caused by poor hygiene.

Perhaps the most innovative work comes from using energy efficient sources to improve public health in remote areas, such as a UNDP project that has installed solar-powered water pumps in Guatemala, the use of camels in Ethiopia to transport vital medicines in solar-powered refrigerators, or using wastes to power community-controlled biogas

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plants in India that, among others, can provide cheap electricity, smoke-free kitchens, better sanitation, and top-quality fertilizer.

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