Engaging Corporations

Challenges in Global Health: New Opportunities for the Private Sector

Representatives from more than 70 companies in Japan attended the symposium.

Leading members of the corporate, philanthropic, and health sectors gathered in Tokyo on July 27, 2010, for a Japan Center for International Exchange symposium entitled “Challenges in Global Health: New Opportunities for the Private Sector.” Primarily targeting corporate executives in Japan, the discussion at the day-long symposium was aimed at exploring ways for Japanese corporations to play a key role in addressing global health challenges by effectively enhancing their own potential to engage with international organizations working in the field.
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Lecture on Corporate Partnership

Dr. Christoph Benn (Photo credit: Council for Better Corporate Citizenship)

Global Fund Director of External Relations Dr. Christoph Benn presented a lecture at Keidanren’s Council for Better Corporate Citizenship in Tokyo on October 5, 2009. He advocated for deepening corporate partnerships with international organizations such as the Global Fund and stressed the crucial role of corporations in fighting communicable diseases. Approximately 20 representatives from Japanese and foreign companies attended the lecture.

Case Studies of Innovative Corporate Responses to Communicable Diseases

FGFJ Diet Task Force members visit a Toyota plant in South Africa.

Corporations around the world have implemented innovative programs to respond to the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, and these have played an important role in improving the health of their workforces, the communities in which they operate, and people around the world. FGFJ researchers are compiling case studies of especially effective programs in order to identify models that corporations, particularly Japanese firms, can emulate or look to for inspiration. Information on these cases is being gathered through research, field visits to project sites around the world, and interviews with corporate executives. The case studies were presented at a major conference in Tokyo in February 2007 and are being compiled for publication as a book.

Conference on Corporate Responses to Communicable Diseases

Close to 100 business executives and civil society representatives from around Asia, including representatives from approximately 50 Japanese companies, gathered in Tokyo on February 5, 2007, to discuss effective approaches that corporations are taking to combat communicable diseases. This symposium was followed on February 6 by a smaller roundtable designed to offer participants from various sectors in Japan the opportunity to talk candidly about the challenges they face and to search creatively together for more effective ways of forming partnerships.

M·A·C AIDS Fund Contributes to the FGFJ

Pamela Anderson (l) and John Demsey(r) present M·A·C's donation to FGFJ Director Tadashi Yamamoto at a Tokyo press conference.

On May 26, 2008, M·A·C VIVA GLAM spokesperson Pamela Anderson presented a check for US$100,000 to the FGFJ on behalf of the M·A·C AIDS Fund to support the FGFJ's efforts to engage political leaders. Established in 1994 by M·A·C Cosmetics, the M·A·C AIDS Fund supports men, women, and children affected by HIV/AIDS globally. Every cent of the selling price of M·A·C's VIVA GLAM lipsticks goes to the M·A·C AIDS Fund, and the contribution to the FGFJ is derived entirely from the sale of VIVA GLAM lipsticks in Japan.

The Role of Business in the Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria: Learning from Successful Cases in Meeting Global Challenge

The full commitment of the business community is an integral component of the response to AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and deeper engagement in the fight against these devastating diseases is in the sector's best interest. A number of corporations have launched innovative and effective programs to help combat these diseases, and their experiences were explored in a half-day symposium on June 28, 2005, that brought together leaders from the corporate, nonprofit, philanthropic, and governmental sectors in Japan and around the world.
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• Conference Report (Japanese only): Communicable Diseases: An Action Agenda for Corporate Social Responsibility [PDF]

Product RED corporate meeting

On February 6, 2007, the FGFJ arranged an informal meeting for representatives of several companies in Japan participating in the Product RED campaign with representatives from the Global Fund—Christoph Benn, director of external relations, and Rajesh Anandan, head of private sector partnerships. During the meeting, Anandan and Benn put the contributions that have been made so far through the RED campaign into perspective, explaining how many lives they helped save by marketing and selling RED products to Japanese customers and also discuss how they might further engage their target markets in Japan in fighting communicable diseases. Since the launch of Product RED in January 2006, the FGFJ has been regularly providing the Japanese branches of the RED partner companies with Japanese language information on the Global Fund and on HIV/AIDS in Africa.