"We're never seen as a peer," he told an audience of public health advocates at the International Conference on Global Health.

Health groups around the world once found the idea that corporations could be partners laughable. Now, with estimates for global health need range from $20 billion to $70 billion, advocates increasingly recognize they will need the private sector's help to generate that kind of cash.

But as private companies give more, their expectations are also rising. Corporate partners want beneficiary groups to let them in at the ground level and prove results.

Multinational oil giant ExxonMobil started its health programs in countries like Nigeria and Chad, where it does business, to ensure the productivity of its workers, said Gerald McElvy, president of the company's philanthropic arm, the ExxonMobil Foundation.

Soon, however, "we found the funding, or philanthropic model was really not working in the long run for us," McElvy said. As a result, the company expanded its efforts to improving community health, as well as the overall development of countries with ties to the company.

Behemoth drug manufacturer Abbott realized it had a lot to learn about improving community health in developing countries, so it started teaching subjects where it has expertise like management and science, said Reeta Roy, vice president of global citizenship and policy at the pharmaceutical manufacturer.

"Our contribution has nothing to do with cash, it has to do with scientific expertise," Roy said. It's the "not so sexy work, which isn't seen. It's about process, about institution building.

"It's much more than a check-writing exercise ... it's engaging on a whole different level where we become a stakeholder."

On the other hand, as corporations' philanthropic divisions become more invested, they also encounter more scrutiny, the executives said.

Stockholders do not necessarily appreciate the value of charity work, Roy said. "For us Wall Street is extremely ruthless."

Global health divisions must also compete for funding within their own companies, she added. "We are accountable. Our performance is assessed. We compete for funding like everyone else."

The next phase, said Derek Yach, director of global health policy at PepsiCo, is answering the question "how do you embed doing good for public health and doing good for profits at the same time?"

To demonstrate the worth of corporate giving, donors are demanding more of their local partners, said John Tedstrom, executive director of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.

Programs that receive funding are asked to generate accurate data that can be used to demonstrate results back in boardrooms, he said. Those that do not could lose support.

Local partners welcome the support of the private sector, but say the potential of greater corporate involvement has some limitations.

Companies "are still learning," said Remi Akinmade, a former public health worker and midwife in Nigeria who founded the Community Health and Information Education Forum to improve healthcare in communities.

"Sometimes they are still ignorant of local health issues," she told United Press International.

"Let them talk to local people and ask them what they want."

The application process for private funding can also be very demanding and intimidating, Akinmade said. As a result some deserving local groups do not get a share of the corporate pie.

With more involvement, private donors must also work to improve business practices that hurt overall health and try to avoid undermining the strong public health sectors that already exist in countries like Brazil, said Roger Nescimento, a fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

"Many of the (private funding) proposals we've heard have nothing to do with state health systems," he told UPI. Businesses should "be healthy and improve health and at the same time reinforce health as a human right."

Related Links
Community Health and Information Education Forum
Hospital and Medical News at InternDaily.com

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