Gates cites the importance of HIS in India speech

by Brendan Smith

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's extensive work on health issues in India was recognized in late July, when Bill Gates received the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development from Indian president Pratibha Patil at a ceremony in New Delhi. The award was given to recognize the $1 billion in commitments the foundation has made to India, mostly in the areas of HIV and polio prevention and treatment, but Gates spent most of his speech recognizing the health efforts of his hosts, including an ambitious health information system (HIS) launched last year.

Gates was particularly fulsome in his praise of the National Rural Health Mission, a body established by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to improve the delivery of health services to the over 700 million Indians who live in the country's 600,000 villages. Since its inception, the NRHM has initiated a number of programs aimed at improving the health and well-being of rural Indians, a demographic with some of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world and a stubbornly high incidence of maternal and child mortality. In addition to rolling out programs aimed at improving the health of women and children, the NRHM is also attempting to track the impact of these programs by deploying the Health Management Information System (HMIS), a massive web-based system that allows the entry of data closer to the point of service, which increases both the accuracy and timeliness of the data and improves officials' ability to spot and analyze health trends and allocate resources.

Across the developing world, a growing number of governments, international organizations, foundations and health care providers are pressing the case that in order to improve health workers' ability to deliver better care and to understand what's working, and not working, in the provision of health care, there is an immense need for better data on both baseline indicators and the outcomes of programs and interventions. Vital Wave Consulting recently produced a report for the Gates Foundation on the state of HIS throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America, featuring full case studies of the Indian HMIS and HIS in Brazil and Zambia, in addition to an analysis of the critical success factors of such systems. The report will soon be released publicly on a new website devoted to furthering dialogue on HIS. Keep watching this blog for details on the website's launch.

Measuring Gates' Creative Capitalism

Last month’s World Economic Forum provided a good setting for one of Bill Gates’ parting speeches as a Microsoft employee and his personal reflections on the role of capitalism in the modern world. Speaking to global industry and political leaders, Gates urged his audience to find a way to ensure that capitalism serves the world’s poor. Labeling this vision “Creative Capitalism,” Gates advocated a twin mission for corporations: make profits and improve the lives of those who do not currently benefit from market forces. As Gates shifts to management of his $39 billion foundation, he will encourage the world’s largest businesses to design products and services that address the needs of the poor. He suggested that, when profit is not feasible, corporations should be motivated by the recognition that comes with serving the poor.

While “Creative Capitalism” may gain currency as a new buzz word, the concept is not new. Many large multinational corporations (MNCs) have tried to find the right mix of pure philanthropy, market development and business development in poor countries. HP’s e-Inclusion program, AMD’s 50x15 initiative and Cisco’s Networking Academies are (or were) pioneering programs that merge self-interest with service. With a new spotlight on this type of business approach, it is worth noting the most common reason for failure – the challenge of measuring results. While Gates stressed the value of recognition, he did not explain how business managers can measure it. To garner the support of shareholders and ensure long-term company commitment, all forms of value should be quantifiable.

Gates’ spotlight on business in new markets will surely increase public pressure on MNCs to demonstrate efforts in this area. This presents an opportunity for MNCs to apply rigorous business practices to their emerging-market effort. MNCs that are committed to becoming recognizable leaders in the developing world will ensure that programs designed to capitalize on new markets are fully incorporated into the company’s main lines of business, rather than lumped into a soft basket of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. By developing new methods for quantifying abstract values, business managers can see both the immediate and long-term value of investments in new markets. If companies react to Gates’ call by beefing up their CSR programs, they will be missing out on the lessons learned long before “Creative Capitalism” showed up at Davos.

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