Source: GBC

In an October presentation, Bill and Melinda Gates talked about why they are "impatient optimists" in the drive to end the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS around the world. In many ways, GBC is a coalition of impatient optimists.

While there has been tremendous progress in both how the disease is fought and the life-saving results being achieved, HIV/AIDS is not yet near its end. In the past five years, the number of people receiving life-saving HIV drugs in low- and middle-income countries has gone from near-zero to 4 million. Four million people.

That kind of remarkable progress is cause for optimism.

But because people's lives are on the line, and because the futures of families, communities and nations can be altered for the better, we need to be impatient and demanding. The disease is far from defeated.

End AIDS Faster

Progress toward defeating HIV/AIDS is at least partly a result of several major leaps forward this decade--and the movement is poised to get stronger entering 2010.

Among the most important improvements in how AIDS is fought came in the form of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (Global Fund), launched in 2002; and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was created in 2003.

GBC represents the private sector to the Global Fund, which has committed $11.9 billion for prevention, treatment, and care programs.  And through GBC, Coalition member Chevron Corporation became the Global Fund's first Corporate Champion, committing $30 million to the Fund's programs. 

» Learn more about Chevron’s HIV/AIDS work

It was also in the past decade, in August 2001, that GBC was created at the urging of then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Today the Coalition brings businesses together to support and work with each other to apply business assets to fighting HIV/AIDS and other critical diseases. Through the Coalition, business joins forces with governments, NGOs, and civil society-a notion that, in 2001, was almost unimaginable.

» Learn more about the maturation of business action
 
These and other advances in the past decade have helped boost the work of organizations of all sizes around the world.

The Coalition in 2009

One reflection of Coalition members' and partners' impatient optimism has been our aggressive push into large-scale collective actions, through our Impact Initiatives program. 

Impact Initiatives are based on the premise that we can get much more done working together than we can on our own. We define problems that can be solved with collective action, and then we find the capabilities, infrastructure, talents, and other assets that are critical to solving those problems.

Two new Impact Initiatives kicked off this year, one in the U.S. and one in Kenya.  And we have scaled up the China HIV/AIDS Media Partnership (CHAMP)--launching a new set of public service announcements, directed by a critically-acclaimed filmmaker and featuring the country's top actress, just last week.

• In Kenya, Coalition members got behind an innovative and highly promising home counseling and testing model. With our support, local partner AMPATH goes door-to-door with HIV testing, bed net distribution, de-worming medication and tuberculosis screening. AMPATH teams have been welcomed into a remarkable 97 percent of homes. More than 3,000 people have already been found to be HIV positive and directly connected to treatment programs--on the spot.

» Learn more about Health at Home/Kenya

• In the U.S., there is a tremendous need for HIV prevention. Working closely with city governments and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Coalition staff have identified ways in which business capabilities can make prevention, testing, and care programs more successful. A $1 million investment from Pfizer Inc is helping to create a highly innovative approach to collective action, moving well beyond traditional public-private partnerships. And Coalition member companies have been stepping up by bringing their skills and assets where they're needed, with strategy and coordination from Coalition staff in New York.

» Learn more about the U.S. HIV Initiative

• In Russia and China, the Coalition's media partnerships have brought together multiple media companies and public sector partners to produce and air PSAs that can change behavior. It's a model that's made tremendous impact. The Russian Media Partnership (RMP) is estimated to have spurred more than 30 million people to learn more about their own risk for HIV infection. And launched only last year, CHAMP has already reached a potential audience of 750 million people across China. 

» Learn more about CHAMP

» Learn more about RMP

Coalition member companies come together in other ways as well. On World AIDS Day 2008, more than 100 CEOs joined forces to pledge to end HIV stigma and discrimination in the workplace and urge other companies to follow suit. The non-discrimination pledge collectively affects 5 million employees worldwide.

» See which CEOs signed the pledge

Many Kinds of Collaboration

Through GBC, collaboration among businesses and with non-corporate allies takes many forms, ranging from online best practice and resource-sharing to workshops for real-time knowledge-sharing and networking to working groups for joint problem-solving and co-creation of tools and strategies.

Some other highlights from 2009:

• The Coalition's Oil and Gas working group brought together major oil companies, their suppliers, and other key stakeholders to find ways to extend the reach of corporate HIV prevention programs into the supply chain. The Group has come together to set an industry-wide agenda and co-create tools for action. In the process, the Coalition is also able to increase the level of awareness among smaller companies of the threat of HIV, and of their power to protect employees and their families.

» Learn more about the Oil and Gas Working Group

• The GBC Annual Conference brought together an extraordinary mix of business people, government leaders, and representatives of civil society to share knowledge and create strategies. The GBC Conference was heavily focused on the practical application of big ideas, and action steps for the creation of important new partnerships. Key insights and takeaways are available to GBC members.

» Learn more about key insights and takeaways from the 2009 Conference

• The 2010 GBC Annual Conference will take place on June 7 and 8 in Washington, D.C.

» Sign up to receive updates about the 2010 conference

• GBC also launched a new online workspace, a Webby Award Honoree, to give members easy access to tools and resources that help improve their performance in fighting HIV/AIDS.
   
• We joined UNITAID and the Millennium Foundation in their rollout of a new $1 billion financing mechanism for disease-fighting, called MASSIVE GOOD, which taps into the routine purchases of millions of international travelers. Leading travel and tourism sector companies, including GBC members Accor, American Express and Carlson, are helping to spearhead the initiative.

» Learn more about MASSIVE GOOD

• HIV/TB co-infection is an important problem that is high on the Coalition's agenda. With critical support and guidance from Eli Lilly and Company, GBC has produced a major new TB initiative, which includes identifying and sharing best practices, creating online training tools and organizing workshops that help companies to better implement integrated HIV-TB programs.
   
• GBC and its members realize that HIV interventions cannot succeed without properly targeting women and girls. GBC chose women and girls as the focus of our first e-learning modules, which provide members with one-stop access to best practice case studies and expert guidance.

» Explore the e-learning modules

• GBC created a new benchmarking tool, to let Coalition members improve their performance by seeing how their HIV/AIDS programs stack up against other companies in their industry or a specific geographic region. The results allow Coalition staff to generate recommendations that help each member to achieve broader and deeper engagement against HIV/AIDS and other diseases.

In the past decade, action by business on HIV/AIDS has gone from being relatively isolated to becoming a major movement that is closely integrated with the entire global health community. Business is an indispensable partner in the fight to defeat HIV/AIDS, so this movement is one reason to be optimistic, even as we are impatient to take our work to a higher level.

Coalition regional offices in Beijing, Moscow, Nairobi and Paris are also holding special events this World AIDS Day.

» Learn more about regional events

Learn more about the status of the fight to defeat HIV/AIDS:

» The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

» UNAIDS

» The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

Originally published December 1, 2009