Georgia has a rich constellation of organizations working to solve large-scale health problems around the world. With the support of the new Georgia Global Health Alliance (GGHA), these organizations are now poised to have an even greater impact on global health. Last year, GGHA began its work to help forge a multi-sector coalition of organizations across Georgia committed to the idea that all people deserve equal access to the means of good health. GGHA hosted its first collaboration workshop last August with a focus on Zika therapeutics and diagnostics. Experts from academia, nonprofits, government agencies, and private companies came together to consider opportunities for building new partnerships to fight the disease. The workshop, coordinated in partnership with PwC, fostered a number of new relationships that GGHA will continue to help nurture and support. The Zika workshop highlighted the critical need for Georgia’s global health organizations to have a mechanism for sharing information and connecting with one another. GGHA will continue to provide opportunities for regular collaboration around different topics that will include as many as three workshops in 2017. This year, GGHA also plans to launch an economic study of the global health sector in Georgia later this year. The first phase of this project will inventory all the organizations working in global health and their activities. A subsequent phase will quantify the annual economic impact of the sector that could be as high as $15 billion. The mapping study will be a vital tool for GGHA members to identify opportunities for working together on areas of common interests. By capturing workforce data and funding trends, the study will also be useful to government agencies for developing public policy and attracting new global health investment to the state. The Metro Atlanta Chamber is partnering with GGHA to help grow the global health sector in metro Atlanta. The chamber’s new strategic pillars include global health as one five priorities for economic development. Later this year, the chamber plans to begin marketing metro Atlanta as a global health center to attract new businesses and talent that will be needed for the sector to grow and prosper. GGHA looks forward to working with MACOC and Georgia’s global health community to increasing our state’s impact on global health.
Saporta Report: http://leadership.saportareport.com/globalhealth/2017/02/07/georgia-can-even-greater-impact-global-health/