VeNews September 2007

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Society Partners with Global Peace Center to Strengthen African Health Care Systems

Vesper Society and a global peace center founded by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik are collaborating to strengthen the health care delivery systems of sub-Saharan Africa.

Bondevik founded The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights in 2006 to combat global poverty and disease and to promote interreligious dialogue. As part of its overall mission, the Center shares Vesper Society’s passion for the intersection of social justice and health care.

The two organizations formed a working relationship last fall. The Oslo Center will use its political contacts to advance the groundbreaking research of the African Religious Health Assets Program (ARHAP), an international, multi-agency project funded in part by Vesper Society.

Since 2002, ARHAP has mapped the disease-fighting resources already present in South Africa and nearby countries, assets that include religious-affiliated hospitals and clinics, congregations, support groups, traditional healers, and formal and informal religious networks.

A recent World Health Organization-funded study found that faith-based organizations play a much greater role than previously understood in fighting HIV/AIDS and alleviating suffering in sub-Saharan Africa. But government, health and philanthropic leaders seldom understand the extent and potential of the work of religious entities, the study notes. The result is poor alignment of public health programs with the work of religious people and groups.

That’s why the relationship with The Olso Center is so important, says Dr. Melvin George, a Vesper Society board member who has been instrumental in forming the partnership with Bondevik’s organization. “Our concern was that ARHAP be more than just a theoretical research enterprise. We wanted to do more than produce data,” George says.

When George and Vesper Society President Mary Baich met two of Bondevik’s colleagues, Dr. Tor Haugstad and Einar Steensnæs, a former member of the Norwegian parliament, at an ARHAP planning meeting at The Carter Center early in 2006, the idea presented itself of tapping Bondevik’s political connections to implement ARHAP’s findings.

The scope of the relationship has grown from there. Vesper Society provided funding to The Oslo Center last year to hire Haugstad on a part-time basis to coordinate the Center’s work with ARHAP. A neurologist, Haugstad is also conducting research in mental health, another area of concern for Vesper Society.

“We conceived a basic relationship that would go beyond a single project,” George says, “—a relationship that would put us in the position that whenever an issue arises, we might work with Oslo [The Oslo Center] to take advantage of their political connections and Oslo might take advantage of Vesper’s experience in convening and networking.”

Haugstad and Steensnæs attended Vesper Society’s board meeting in Oakland in early August.

Board members heard a report on The Oslo Center’s activities around the world, including a United Nations humanitarian mission to the Horn of Africa and its work with WHO on reducing infant mortality.

Vesper Society and the Center are laying plans now for a conference in South Africa, tentatively scheduled for March 2008, that would convene political, religious and health leaders to consider how ARHAP’s research can be used to improve health systems.

“We are very grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with The Oslo Center,” Baich says, “and we look forward to deepening our relationship in ways that are mutually beneficial and consistent with our vision to create a more compassionate world.”

For more information regarding The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights, visit their website at www.oslocenter.no.

For more information on the collaboration contact .

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Vesper Society, a private operating foundation, promotes social justice locally and globally by addressing critical social issues including the provision of health services for the underserved.