"The State of Business Coalitions in Sub-Saharan Africa:" A New Study for Private Sector Coordination in the Fight against AIDS

WEF/GHI & World Bank Press Release

"The State of Business Coalitions in Sub-Sarahan Africa" (PDF)

Inidividual coalition profiles by country (in English and French)



For more information, contact Francesca Boldrini, Director, Global Health Initiative, World Economic Forum at francesca.boldrini@weforum.org

“The State of Business Coalitions in Sub-Saharan Africa”,released on November 1, 2006 by The World Economic Forum Global Health Initiative and The World Bank, details efforts in 27 countries to support businesses in addressing HIV/AIDS.

Currently, 20 national business coalitions against HIV/AIDS exist in sub-Saharan Africa, 16 of which were established in the last 5 years to meet the growing demand of the business community. The study provides guidance to nascent coalitions; shares best practices, benefits, and achievements of developed coalitions; and highlights key challenges facing these organizations.

Over the past five years, The World Economic Forum’s Global Health Initiative (WEF/GHI) and The World Bank’s AIDS Campaign Team for Africa (ACTafrica) have worked in 27 countries to catalyze public private partnerships in health by building and supporting business coalitions across Africa. Since 2003, The Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) has supported these efforts in The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Malawi, Mauritania and Senegal. To develop the mapping and evaluation work for this study, WEF/GHI and ACTafrica drew from their experiences in the field, as well as those of their partner organizations, including CCA, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), UNAIDS, and PharmAccess International.

To date, the business coalitions profiled in this study have made significant progress: 20 coalitions have engaged 1,950 private sector organizations in sub-Saharan Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Businesses and the donor community are urged to continue to support the development of business coalitions in order to strengthen the role of the private sector in the national response to HIV/AIDS.