Years of Investments Finally Put Health Workers on the Global Stage

Sarah Dwyer — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 13:19:29 +0000

This post was originally published on the Huffington Post’s Social Entrepreneurship Blog.

For almost 10 years, I managed health programs in Africa, Asia, and South America that harnessed social marketing techniques to produce tangible benefits for poor consumers. Our programs made low-cost products such as condoms, contraceptives, and oral rehydration salts available at reduced, affordable prices. We worked mostly through the private sector and were proud of our bottom-line health impact. We didn’t think much about underlying health systems or how to improve them. And if we had, we probably would have dismissed health system strengthening as overly ambitious.

Author's name:

David J. Olson, guest blogger

Publication Date:

September 2013

David Olson

Years of Investments Finally Put Health Workers on the Global Stage