GBCHealth’s Business Action on Health Awards have been an important tool to recognize corporate leadership and commitment to improving global health through the implementation of high-impact, evidence-based health programs.
This year, GBCHealth introduced a new award category to emphasize the importance of investing in the health of women and girls. GBCHealth is proud to announce Johnson & Johnson’s Private-Sector Pioneer in Fostering Innovative Partnerships to Prevent and Treat Obstetric Fistula program as this year’s winner of the Business Action on Health Award: Focus on Women & Girls.
The award winner, Johnson & Johnson, and three commended companies – BASF, MSD and Philips – were honored at the Women Deliver Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 17th, 2016.
“We received a record number of applications for a single award category. It is exciting to see the depth and breadth of corporate programs being implemented in over 35 countries, targeting millions of the world’s most vulnerable women and girls,” said Nancy Wildfeir-Field, President of GBCHealth. “Clearly GBCHealth’s Business Action on Health Award represents a powerful spirit of innovation, and offers us a significant opportunity to recognize success and best practices against global health challenges, as well as to inspire others to redouble their own efforts.”
Winners were selected through a rigorous evaluation process by an external panel of judges—comprised of experts from across government, multilateral, NGO, academic and business sectors. This year’s panel included Sheetal Bhadeskar (DSM North America), Ruchi Dass (HealthCursor Consulting Group), Frances Ganges (International Confederation of Midwives), Sandii Lwin (Myanmar Health and Development Consortium), Halima Mwenesi (FHI360), Eric Ostern (Unilever), Susan Ross (USAID), Patrik Silborn (Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria), Anastasia Thatcher (Accenture Development Partnerships) and Janeen Uzzell (General Electric).
Programs:
Winner: Johnson & Johnson – Private Sector Pioneer in Fostering Innovative Partnerships to Prevent and Treat Obstetric Fistula
For over 20 years, Johnson & Johnson has been supporting programs to prevent and treat obstetric fistula, a debilitating injury of childbirth caused by prolonged, obstructed labor and lack of access to essential, quality healthcare services. The company’s holistic approach to fistula prevention, treatment and care goes beyond addressing the physical needs of women. In addition to increasing vulnerable women’s access to trained healthcare providers and comprehensive obstetric care, which includes safe surgery, the program supports rehabilitation networks and entrepreneurial opportunities responding to the psychosocial and economic impacts of the condition. Read the case study here.
Commended: BASF – Affordable Nutritious Food for Women
Driven by the power of collaborative public-private partnerships under the company’s Food Fortification Initiative, the program provides the policy support and technical implementation assistance to local manufacturers necessary to provide affordable, fortified foods to girls and women of reproductive age (15 – 44 years of age) at risk of nutrient deficiencies. Read the case study here.
Commended: MSD – MSD for Mothers
Determined to scale-up high-impact, high-need interventions that improve maternal health, MSD for Mothers focuses its investments in two areas proven to have the greatest impact on ending preventable maternal deaths: improving the quality of care women receive at a health facility at the time of childbirth – a triple return on investment by reducing not only maternal deaths but also stillbirths and newborn deaths – and expanding access to high-quality modern contraceptives – an intervention that could prevent one-third of maternal deaths. Read the case study here.
Commended: Philips – Mobile Obstetrics Monitoring (MOM)
A mobile software solution, MOM enables health workers in community- or primary-care settings to deliver improved antenatal care by identifying pregnant women’s risk profiles, diagnosing health issues such as anemia, and monitoring patients’ progress through easy access to comprehensive health records. Read the case study here.
Find a list of all 2016 Business Action on Health Awards finalists here.