Pfizer Inc.
Global
Health Fellows Volunteer Program on HIV-AIDS
In an effort to expand access to health care for the world’s
most needy, Pfizer devised a challenging initiative to mobilize
the technical skills and expertise of its own employees in
the global campaign against HIV-AIDS and other diseases. The Pfizer Global Health
Fellows program sends skilled personnel to developing countries
to help NGOs build the health and social infrastructure in
communities ravaged by the epidemic. Its initial partners—seven
international NGOs working in nine countries—engaged
Pfizer professionals directly, in client hospitals or other
local organizations for up to six months. The program’s
primary objectives: build health care capacity for the countries
and professional development experience for the volunteers.
Due to the program’s complexity, high visibility and
implications for its personnel, Pfizer engaged Jonathan Levine
in the pilot phase of Global Health Fellows to help refine
its structure and processes. His initial mission was to analyze
and present a case study on the program to the United
Nations Global Compact. That report laid out the program’s
political, strategic and organizational underpinnings, and
identified critical lessons about building constructive
partnerships with NGOs. The study also provided an
internal tool for improving
the program’s effectiveness by identifying opportunities
for strategic and tactical changes to its design
and operations. Through dozens of interviews with Pfizer managers,
volunteers, NGOs and on-site with local medical professionals
in Africa and beyond, the study recommended improvements
designed to better drive outcomes and increase impact.
The results helped to improve
NGO field capacity by refining the program structure,
to set appropriate expectations among field
organizations and better equip volunteers to maximize the
impact of their contributions.
Read the Case
Study (published by the Boston College Center for Corporate
Citizenship)
|
