The P3 Impact Series highlights the work of finalists of the P3 Impact Award. The P3 Impact Award recognizes highly effective public-private partnerships that have led to positive social impact. This annual award is presented by Concordia, the U.S. Department of State Secretary’s Office of Global Partnerships, and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business Institute for Business in Society(IBiS) at the Concordia Awards.
In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, news footage brought us face to face with the death and destruction left in its wake. The country struggled to fix communication systems, conduct rescue efforts, and distribute food and water. As with many natural disasters, providing supplies, medical care, and sanitation became difficult.
Harvey Rubin, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, watched this unfold. He was struck by the fact that children were dying not only from the direct effects of the quake, but from diseases that are preventable through the administration of vaccines routinely given to children in the United States.
This is not unique to Haiti. Millions of children die annually from vaccine-preventable diseases. The problem is not the availability of vaccines, but the inability to provide effective vaccines due to vulnerability of the vaccine cold chain - the temperature-controlled supply chain that maintains vaccines within a constant temperature range between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius through transport, storage, and handling
Determined to ensure children in the developing world are given the same access to life-saving vaccinations as his own children, Dr. Rubin felt the call to action. He knew from his international work that weaknesses in the vaccine cold chain pose a significant barrier to vaccine coverage in many middle and low-income countries. If vaccines are not kept in this temperature range, they are ineffective.
Dr. Rubin had a simple idea. Since there are cell phones all over the world, it follows that there are cell towers all over the world. Where there are cell towers, there is power. Perhaps cell tower companies would be willing to provide a small amount of energy from their cell towers to power vaccine refrigerators, a small gesture that could dramatically change the lives of the populations the cell towers serve.
To bring his idea to fruition, Dr. Rubin founded Energize the Chain (EtC). In 2011, Dr. Rubin established his first partnership with Econet Wireless, a telecommunications company in Zimbabwe. Together they began building vaccine refrigeration sites associated with their cell towers, absorbing all costs for construction, power, communications, and security. Through the partnership between Energize the Chain and Econet, 312 sites have been created to date, and more than 500,000 vaccines have been administered to the children of Zimbabwe using this system.
In 2014, Dr. Rubin connected with American Tower Corporation, a Boston-based company that owns, operates, and develops wireless communication towers around the world. This partnership is currently expanding the strategy into Ghana, with plans to establish 35 sites in a pilot program, followed by 50 additional sites in Ghana.
EtC recognizes that the key to building an effective supply chain lies in building public-private partnerships that leverage the strengths and capacities of existing systems, technologies and infrastructures - a sustainable and scalable solution.
By creating public-private partnerships with major telecom companies, ministries of health, global health organizations, NGOs, and other private sector industry partners, Energize the Chain strengthens and extends country-wide systems for delivery, storage, and refrigeration of vaccines and essential medicines.
Our fundamental insight is to use the power, distribution, and connectivity available at remote cell phone towers to provide the energy, data, and communications necessary to maintain and monitor a robust cold chain. Our hope is to strengthen and extend the health system to address the needs of the most vulnerable populations.
Stay tuned at: https://www.concordia.net/the-summit-2016/ and follow@GPatState, @IBiS_Darden, @ConcordiaSummit, and #P3Impact on Twitter for updates.
Robin Davison is the Director of Communications at Energize the Chain.