"For Democrats, maybe it's framed as letting the government do its job better and for Republicans, maybe it's framed as letting the market do its job better; however we get there, the idea of helping promote private sector investment in public outcomes is attractive to everyone."

Last week Cathy Clark, Director of CASE i3 and Co-Principal Investigator for SEAD sat down with the Fuqua School of Business to talk about the United States National Advisory Board on Impact Investing of which she is a board member.  The board recently released a series of recommendations for US policymakers on how they can encourage impact investing to encourage economic growth.

To read the full Q&A with Cathy Clark, visit Fuqua's website here.
Read the US National Advisory Board on Impact Investing recommendations here.

What can African healthcare companies learn from India?  In Dinfin Mulupi's article on How We Made It in Africa, it turns out a lot.  Mulupi highlights SEAD innovator Vaatsalya as one of three companies in India that are making waves in global healthcare and that African innovators should take lessons from.

“This combination of targeting an under-served but large market focusing on common conditions, gives Vaatsalya a clear market niche and sufficient scale and focus to achieve cost savings – most of these are benefits from standardisation, flow and specialisation rather than economies of scale,” says KPMG.


Read the full article here.

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships. Today's post comes from Megan McCarroll.  Megan participated in the Duke Global Health Fellows Program based out of Geneva, Switzerland.  She tells us about the work she did with the International Organization for Migration and her visit to the Human Rights Council.

I tried to begin my internship in Geneva with as few expectations as possible. I failed, of course, but my efforts have allowed me to be as open as possible to the myriad of perspectives and opinions surrounding the United Nations. I began my internship with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on June 2, so I have now been here for one month. I am interning in the migration health division under the Senior Policy advisor for migration health.  She is one of those “larger than life” people—trained to be a pediatrician in the Philippines and began working in a refugee camp for the IOM, has worked in war zones and now works in the headquarters while traveling to countries in the midst of crisis to address major pressing health issues, such as a cholera outbreak in a refugee camp. While it is awesome to be working for such an interesting person, she has been away on mission for most of this month. She was in Iraq for a week, then South Sudan for 2 weeks, and now she is heading to Zimbabwe at the end of next week! She says (and I am hoping) that she will be staying in Geneva for the rest of the summer after Zimbabwe, so we’ll see… 

As for my duties as an intern, I have written two IOM position papers—one general paper on HIV and migration and the other on HIV in emergency settings—which will be used as advocacy tools for IOM staff and various officials in the field, and I made an info sheet on HIV as well. I do not have much of a background on migration health, so there has been a steep learning curve while doing research and liaising with staff in regional offices around the globe. Some of points that have stuck most with me:

• Migration is a loaded word with a negative context, causing migrants and mobile populations to face issues with stigma. 
  
• There are many different kinds of migrants— immigrants from particular countries, emigrants in overseas work, ethnic minorities, internal migrants, victims of exploitation and abuse, and irregular migrants and displaced persons, though they are often clumped into one category when making global policy. 
  
• National policies often forget to include migrants in their strategic health plans, especially in emergencies. 
  
• Migrant populations + HIV = Stigma x 2   
  
• Migrants are good for a host country/community. The common stereotype is that they are “carriers” of disease and steal away jobs from local people. These ways of thinking affect national policies and local attitudes. 
  

Several weeks ago, I participated in a two-day departmental retreat that really helped me gain insight into how a headquarter organization functions. Some of the main issues discussed were: 

• The need to harness information systems to produce quality data 
  
• Visibility—IOM’s role within the UN, relationship with UNHCR, and distinguishing its role as the lead organization for migration 
  
• The need to strengthen coordination between IOM divisions and departments, UN organizations, and other sectors 
  
• The need to establish a Migration Governance Conceptual Framework to improve the organization’s focus, strengthen communication within the IOM and partners, and identify cross-cutting issues. 
  
• Lack of human resources—headquarters staff cannot be experts in every part of the world so they are always sprinting to keep up

I also had the opportunity to attend meetings at the Palais des Nations during the Human Rights Council in June. I was sent to take notes in meetings specifically addressing migration and/or health but I also got to attend a few that interested me personally. The Palais is a huge maze of fancy buildings and rooms and it is very hard to navigate (a symbol of UN bureaucracy?). For the Human Rights Council, country Ambassadors typically led the meetings, while other member states had country cards that they would raise when wanting to make a point. Watching countries argue over wordings of resolutions was both fascinating and mind-numbing. The politics surrounding migration created subtle tensions between certain countries, but on the surface, the mood was mild and the pace was extraordinarily slow. That, I believe, is one of the more frustrating aspects of the UN system. Last week I heard a U.S. diplomat say that Americans are obsessed with efficiency and forget that global policy has to move slowly to affect real change. Change does not happen in a couple weeks or months. It often entails major shifts in ways of thinking about a problem. Today during a talk from the World Health Organization, the speaker stated, “better to walk together slowly than to run ahead alone.” I know that I need more time to reflect on this statement and see where it lies in relation to my values and where I see my future self in the global policy field.   

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Today's post comes to us from Pablo Ramos who has been interning with salaUno in Mexico.  SalaUno operates a network of eye clinics in Mexico that aims to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality eye care to low-income populations.  Pablo shares his observations on how salaUno's mission drives the entire company towards success.

I spent two months of my summer working at salaUno. The company is a fantastic Mexican startup, built by young, kind-hearted entrepreneurs who see beyond building a profitable business. The company’s core activities are focused on helping the underserved population in Mexico and the company’s mission of Eliminating Needless Blindness in Mexico is adhered to by everyone in the company. In fact it is part of the reason the company has been able to attract great talent from young individuals and external consultants. Witnessing this work culture had taught me three main lessons from salaUno.

Hard work will always be rewarding. For some time now, I have been looking for the perfect moment to launch my own company.  Now I realize there is no such thing as “the perfect moment”. I may come out of my MBA highly indebted, using that as an excuse to wait for better timing but later I may have kids and the same thing will happen. Working at salaUno made me realize that no matter what the circumstances are, with hard work and a good team everything is possible. After losing support from the federal government to subsidize cataract surgeries, salaUno lost a significant revenue stream that could have taken the business down. Nevertheless, hard work and perseverance made salaUno find new avenues to keep growing. I am certain these avenues will take salaUno beyond what they imagine.

Building a great team is of utmost importance. I was thrilled to see all the talent that salaUno has been able to attract due to its amazing mission. This mission allows salaUno to attract plenty of young, qualified individuals that are doing a great job and impacting the company’s future for the better. I also realized the value of a well-diversified top level management team. Both founders of salaUno have very similar careers and while they have been able to manage and grow the business for 3 years now, I believe they need to include someone with medical expertise in top-level management. Working in healthcare involves so many specific details that having this expertise will very helpful. As a business man, one can think a lot of things are possible but when dealing with people’s lives having this expertise at this level in the organization is imperative.

Businesses with a social mission are a reality.  This is the most important lesson that I got out of my experience. SalaUno reached breakeven after only two months of operations.  Today it is a company that employs over 80 people and impacts thousands of lives by providing accessible eye care to everyone. By aligning the company’s mission with its profitability, the company will make more money as long as they do more surgeries and impact more people. Aligning interests and incentives for employees is not a simple feat and I believe that it is a key feature of salaUno’s business model: increasing profitability and impacting more lives with growth hand-in-hand.

Overall, working with salaUno was a great experience. I was able to see firsthand how startups are run, all the challenges they face and how they need to be solve, but most importantly that being a successful social entrepreneur is possible!

Throughout the summer, SEAD interns will be sharing with us stories and experiences from their summer internships.  Our first post comes to us from Michael McNeil who participated in the Duke Global Health Fellows Program.  Based in Geneva, this internship gives students the opportunity to learn from a variety of global health-related organizations over the summer.

In four days my family and I will be returning to the United States after a whirlwind European adventure. Adventure is the only word that can adequately describe the incredible experience and opportunity that I gained as a member of the 2014 Duke Global Health Fellows Program.

This program allows students from around the country an opportunity to be involved with an eight-to-twelve week internship with a variety of international organizations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) based in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with this internship is a weeklong course directed by Dr. Anthony So entitled “Health Policy in a Globalizing World”. In this course we receive a series of seminars and lectures by a variety of health professionals in multiple international organizations around Geneva as well as multiple site visits of several of those organizations. 

Every summer, IPIHD selects an elite group of MBA students from the Fuqua School of Business to go into the field to work internships with their innovators.  This year we're excited to have four of their interns working with SEAD innovators over the summer.  Join us for a peek into the work the interns have been engaged in so far this summer.

Tim Morilla, a second year MBA, is working with salaUno in Mexico.  SalaUno operates a network of eye clinics in Mexico that aims to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality eye care to low-income populations.   

Cristina Arellano, a second year MBA, is working with SughaVazhvu in India.  SughaVazhvu operates a system of Rural Micro Health Centers (RMHCs) that provide critical healthcare to impoverished, remote villages that traditionally have not had access to the healthcare they need.

Wonjae Lee, a recent Fuqua alumnus, is working with North Star Alliance in Kenya.  North Star Alliance converts shipping containers into Roadside Wellness Centers (RWCs) strategically placed alongside transport corridors to provide medical services to migrant populations such as truck drivers and sex workers.

John Emami, a recent Fuqua alumnus, is working with Jacaranda Health in Kenya. Jacaranda Health operates a system of affordable, comprehensive maternity clinics that provide maternity care for 1/5 the cost typically found in private hospitals in Kenya.

Jose Magaña Paredes, a second year MBA, is working with IPIHD innovator Medica Santa Carma in Mexico.  Medica Santa Carma provides affordable prevention and treatment of kidney disease to low-income populations in Mexico.

How about five reasons?  The International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery (IPIHD) put together a fantastic guide on why you should consider nominating your organization for IPIHD and SEAD.  We know that scaling the impact of your innovations is no walk in the park.  Why not tap into our resources to help make it happen?

Read the full article here.