The meetings at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland kicked off yesterday. Leaders from around the world are gathered to hold high level meetings and conversations about foreign affairs. The New York Times has some pre-WEF analysis. Here is an excerpt:
Davos has been good at spotting some mega-trends, such as the rise of emerging markets and, more recently, the shale gas-driven rebalancing of economic growth in the United States. It also flagged future global tensions, such as access to water and cybersecurity.
The Alpine zeitgeist has a better track record when viewed from the perspective of the business community as a whole.
An annual survey of confidence among chief executives, unveiled each year at Davos by PricewaterhouseCoopers, shows that CEOs had a reasonably good idea of what was in store in 2007, 2009 and over the past three years, if not in 2008 and 2011. See graphic http://link.reuters.com/muv73w
Of course, for most of the 2,500 participants, the event is more about meeting contacts and swapping ideas than pinning down firm predictions.
“Clearly, there are things that are missed,” said Mark Spelman, managing director at consultancy Accenture, who has been coming to Davos for more than a decade. “But it gives me a picture of how 2015 may play out and it’s impossible to get the same quantity or quality of interaction in such a condensed period of time in any other place on the planet.”
This year worries about international conflict are a major concern for the global community, according the WEF’s annual Global Risks report, though economic fears are still very real.
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Global Health and Development Beat
Syria has gone a year without a reported polio case, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, after a massive immunization campaign triggered by the disease’s appearance in the war-torn country.
United Nations agencies need a final $1 billion to fight West Africa’s deadly Ebola epidemic as experts move to a new phase involving a massive detective operation to trace remaining cases, the U.N. Ebola chief said on Wednesday.
Doctors Without Borders announced Wednesday that it has returned to Myanmar’s troubled state of Rakhine nine months after it was ordered out by the government for hiring members of the long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.
Pressure on fresh water resources may be the main global threat in the next decade, but the world is failing to mitigate the risk and avoid a crisis, according to a survey of leaders from business, government, universities, international organisations and NGOs by non-profit foundation the World Economic Forum.
HIV/Aids researchers are anticipating positive results from a large-scale trial assessing the efficacy of a vaginal microbicide gel in preventing HIV infection in women, reports Ugandan newspaper The Observer.
Nigeria on Wednesday confirmed that five states have been hit with the H5N1 strain of bird flu, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of poultry but no human cases.
People who are hospitalized for pneumonia face a higher risk of heart attack or stroke in the following weeks and months, Canadian researchers reported. (AFP http://yhoo.it/183cD5H)
As Venezuela’s ailing economy spawns unprecedented shortages of basic goods, panic-buying and a rush to snap up subsidized food, demand is high and the pay is reasonable for those willing to wait in line.
A court has ordered the Indian government to release $300,000 sent by Greenpeace’s foreign partners for use in India by the environmental group.
A Live Earth music event to demand action on climate change will take place on June 18 across seven continents, including Antarctica, former U.S. vice-president Al Gore and pop star Pharrell Williams announced on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum.
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Spotlight on PSI
Inspired by the ABC reality TV show Shark Tank, PSI’s corporate partnerships team recently conducted its own version of the contest. Teams of PSI staffers presented five ideas to three judges, Sumathi Balasubramanian, senior manager, initiatives for girls and women, PSI; Marcie Cook, senior regional director, Asia and Eastern Europe, PSI; and Adeeb Mahmud, director, FSG. The winner was the Tampax for Toilets campaign, submitted by Dan Lawner and Genevieve Kelly of PSI’s East Africa department and Malaria and Child Survival department, respectively. Watch their winning presentation above or read below for more on their idea:
The target audience: One in ten girls in Africa will drop out of school due to her period. A study in Tanzania found a 12 percent increase in school attendance by girls when toilets, which provide privacy and washing facilities, were provided. Without access to sanitary pads or tampons, girls are often forced to resort to less safe and less absorbent materials, such as rags, tree bark or newspaper.
The plan: Tampax for Toilets would be a cause-based marketing campaign in which one percent of sales of Tampax in the United States during the first 28 days of May leading up to Menstrual Hygiene Day fund a program to provide adolescent girls with tampons and access to clean, safe toilets in 60 urban schools of Ethiopia. According to P&G’s 2014 Annual report, annual sales of feminine products in the US alone were valued at $1.47 billion. One percent of 28 days of sales would generate up to $1.13 million, not counting for a possible increase in sales during the promotional period, as consumers choose P&G products over the alternative in recognition of P&G’s charitable purpose.
The results: The ultimate goal of Tampax for Toilets would be to keep adolescent girls healthy, and in school. This is done through providing access to menstrual hygiene education, products, and clean, private toilets for changing and washing in 60 urban Ethiopian schools. As a bonus, only 7 percent of P&G’s sales currently are acquired in Africa, making this is a largely untapped market for their products and thus a branding opportunity.
Learn more about it here.
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Buzzing in the Blogs
Women’s health – particularly reproductive health – must be a priority if the sustainable development goals are to be achieved in the coming years, says Ann Starrs in the Guardian. She writes:
Even a glance at the list of proposed goals makes clear that universal access to contraception and other sexual and reproductive health services is vital to achieving many of them. How can we end poverty if women and couples cannot determine whether or when to have a child, or how many to have? How can we ensure equitable education for all if so many girls drop out of school due to unwanted pregnancy? How can we achieve gender equality if women’s reproductive rights are not fulfilled?
The answer to all of these questions is the same: we can’t. But these are the questions that must be asked in September as UN delegates and civil society groups negotiate a final version of the SDGs.
For negotiations to take women’s wellbeing into account effectively, they must start with the basic facts. While more women are practising modern contraception today than a decade ago, contraceptive use has barely kept pace with global population growth.
New research from the Guttmacher Institute shows that a shockingly high number of women in developing regions still do not receive the services they need to protect their health and that of their newborns: 225 million women who want to avoid pregnancy are not using contraceptives and 43 million pregnant women face health risks by giving birth outside a health facility.
In addition, while increased access to antiretroviral therapy has changed the course of the Aids epidemic globally, increasing life expectancy significantly, nearly half of women who need treatment for HIV do not receive it.
The consequences are devastating: 74m unintended pregnancies, 28m unplanned births and 20m unsafe abortions each year. Some 290,000 women and 2.9 million newborns die each year, largely because of the lack of access to good-quality care during childbirth. In addition, 273,000 infants become infected with HIV during pregnancy and delivery or breastfeeding.
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Capital Events
Thursday
1:30 PM – Reflections from the Frontline of the Ebola Response in Liberia – O’Neill Institute
Friday
8:00 AM – Collaborate: The Innovator’s Conference – Fosterly
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By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
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Disclaimer: Opinions presented in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of PSI.