By Crai S. Bower
Puget Sound Business Journal Special Supplement
A Zambian doctor uses ‘Lab on a Card’ technology to test for an entire suite of diseases, and infections. In Malawi, a mother maintains her family’s savings even after her husband’s death by controlling the family money, which only she can access by using thumb print readers. In Latin American, microloans radically transform entire villages.
These are just three examples of global change catalyzed by Seattle organizations.
“Seattle has the opportunity to be branded the world leader in the absolutely wonderful movement of global health, philanthropy and general human betterment,” says David Allen, chairman of enterpriseSeattle, a public-private partnership that promoted the economic development of King County and its 39 cities. “EnterpriseSeattle considers the recent development in global philanthropy organizations to be a growing economic cluster in our region.”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation receives most of the attention, but the world’s wealthiest foundation is just one of many local organizations determined to better the health of the world’s citizens.
PATH, which operates 28 offices in 18 countries, was founded 30 years ago and, in many ways, ceated the contemporary protocol for improving global health. PATH’s growth in annual funds to $165 million reflects its important partnership with the Gates Foundation. The staff has tripled to 521 people in six years; about half work at the Seattle headquarters.
The PATH mission including “creating sustainable, culturally relevant solutions, that enable communities world-wide to break longstanding cycles of poor health.”
The organization provides health technologies like the Lab on a Card system to subvert and replace the paradigms of despair. This is no Band-Aid solution, but rather a systematic change in the entire operation of health treatments including maternal and reproductive health, children’s health, infectious diseases and vaccines and immunization.
“Our vision is to provide health improvement for everyone around the world,” Scott Jackson, vice president of external affairs, explains. “To do this we must design innovative technologies that will transform broken patterns into successful applications. Our innovations must be simple and appropriate.”
Lab on a Card is one example of a simple solution. One sample of blood, stool or saliva is collected on a single card. The doctor then uses this sample to test for every potential disease. A second innovation, the vaccine Vial Monitor, continually measures the temperature of a vaccine, ensuring that the right temperature, and thus the efficacy of the medicine, is maintained.
“It is not just the technology that must change in global health, but entire behaviors that must change,” Jackson says. “We are currently working with the Zambian government to coordinate every facet of their malaria program, from staffing, procurement of knowledge and materials to delivery.”
Any kink and the entire system can be thrown in flux, resulting in tragic consequences for the patients throughout the development world.
And PATH is just one of several health organizations that has increased its presence in Seattle.
Portland based Mercy Corps and Northwest Medical Teams have both opened offices in Seattle. Global Partnerships, World Vision and several other organizations call the Seattle area home.
“Our state is dependent on the global economy,” says Jackson, a Washington native. “People become globally aware here from a young age. Our global health educational environments demonstrate this, from Whitman College to the University of Washington to Washington State University. Kids today want to stay and do good work in school and then dedicate careers in research centers like the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. PATH benefits from this environment because we are
dependent upon local, private donations to develop and compose our program proposals and grants.”
“Of course we are also very fortunate at PATH to have the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation here.” he adds. “The foundation is significant enough to influence governments and (command) meetings like the recent Malaria Summit. Their partnership is directly responsible for the recent strides made against malaria, including the Vaccine Initiative, the Global Malaria Consortium and holistic improvement of Zambia’s Malaria Program.”
It also means if you are passionate about these topics, you are going to want to work in Seattle, enterpriseSeattle’s Allen adds.
“Our city, already renowned for our generosity as well as our civic participation, only gets better,” he says.
Rick Beckett, CEO of Global Partnership, is a prime example of someone who came to Seattle specifically to work in philanthropy. Beckett moved to the region in last his 40th birthday by deciding to dedicate his skills to making the world a better place. He left behind a career as an investment banker and became a leader of the organization that was founded by Bill and Paula Clapp in 1994. Today, as a nonprofit organization, Global Partnership pioneers microfinancing in Latin American countries.
Much like institutional health care, every link at Global Partnerships must remain taut and true for the group’s microfinancing to be successful. The results are astounding.
“It really only takes a little bit of capital to make a world of difference,” Beckett says.
Microfinancing works this way: The individual makes his investment in the microfinance institution (MFI), which in turn lends money to the microborrower. The microborrower repays the institution and the institution repays the investor. The amounts lent to the microborrowers may equal no more than a month worth of lattés in the developed world.
“We’ll be in nine countries with 24 MFIs reaching 460,000 borrowers with support of $27 million in capital by June of this year. 1.6 million people are thus impacted, when you consider each borrower supports an average of three other family members. Our goal is to have $100 million in capital and 2 million borrowers within 36 month,” Beckett says.
“Receiving a loan becomes a lifeline for these proud people,” he explains. “But the critical first step is the establishment of a successful microfinance institution. Once in place, the actual loan retention rates from the microborrowers are between 95 percent and 98 percent.”
Global Partnership is determined to make a critical difference in the lives of others and it is focused entirely on the present mission: to give every individual in the world a chance to experience a high quality of life, Beckett says.
“Microcredit and finance are steps to end poverty,” he adds. “It’s an opportunity to have a direct impact.”
And he sees Seattle as the perfect home to accomplish that goal.
Like Global Partnership, PATH and other philanthropic foundations, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was was established with the explicit purpose of making a difference – now.
“Bill and Melinda believe that all lives have equal value, no matter where they live, in a rich country or a poor country, in a wealthy home or a poor one,” says the foundation’s Senior Policy Advisor Monica Harrington. “The goals of the Gates Foundation are to improve global health, reduce extreme poverty and strengthen education in the United States and abroad.”
“Children in developing countries can die from lack of a 15-cent vaccine, and diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, both quite rare in wealthy countries, remain chronic problems in the developing world,” she says.
These diseases, if all but eradicated in the developed world, are diseases of poverty that can be eliminated with attention and investment, Harrington explains. “Even AIDS, which crosses economic lines, hits the poor the hardest.”
The recent $30 billion gift from Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet to the Gates Foundation is expected to enhance and enable several Puget Sound institutions, including the developing biotechnology sector and the University of Washington medical research facilities.
“We believe strongly in power of science and technology to improve the lives of people throughout the world,”Harrington says.
Buffet’s largess comes with the mandate to spend at least 5 percent, or over $3 billion dollars annually, beginning in 2009. In response, the Gates Foundation, which issues grants exclusively, will grow from 250 to 400 employees by middle of this year.
“Mr. Buffet’s gift is both an enormous privilege and a huge responsibility. We are growing at a rapid rate to address this challenge,” Harrington says, noting the agency is “importing talented, committed policymakers, researchers, medical and educational experts from around the world.”
EnterpriseSeattle’s Allen says he expects the region will benefit from highly educated, compassionate citizens who will flock to the region. “If you are a global health, finance or education organization, you are going to open an office in Seattle to be close to the Gates Foundation. Everyone, most significantly the under represented, benefits from this arrangement.”
“This is an incredibly exciting time to be part of this movement,” Harrington concludes, “and to be surrounded by so many people doing wonderful work towards the ultimate goal: that everyone experiences the opportunity to live a healthy, peaceful and productive life.”
