The Fund for Elimination of Viral Hepatitis (DBA “EndHep2030”) has been launched at the World Hepatitis Summit (November 1-3, 2017. Sao Paulo, Brazil).
Conceived as a collaborative funding platform by the philanthropic sector in response to the call to eliminate viral hepatitis by 2030 by the WHO Global Health Strategy, EndHep2030 was a direct outcome of the International Roundtable Summit of Funding for Elimination of Viral Hepatitis (June 20-21, 2016. Hong Kong, China). The summit was organized by ZeShan Foundation in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization, a culminating event of the tripartite partnership between the three entities since 2009.
EndHep2030 will have a limited lifespan of 25 years. It aims to raise $1 billion (US), which it disburses, mainly through grants, to hepatitis-focused organizations and public health entities to help them take a scaled-up, public health systems approach to the goal of elimination, and to catalyze actions to engage, prepare, and assist countries with high prevalence to reach the targets for eliminating viral hepatitis.
Specifically, EndHep2030 will provide catalytic funding to achieve the following: mobilizing financial resources, fostering strategic partnerships, and building collaborations for analyzing strategic information, supporting national planning and policy development, underwriting program implementation and evaluation, increasing public awareness, improving access to quality treatment, and spurring innovations of prevention technologies.
Funding for EndHep2030
Initial funding for EndHep2030 has come from the philanthropic sector. Although there are likely to be multiple funding sources, it is expected that the majority will continue to be from the philanthropic sector. This is a largely untapped resource because viral hepatitis has been so neglected for such a long time and has therefore rarely been considered by philanthropic donors.
ZeShan Foundation in partnership with EndHep2030 has announced its latest hepatitis-related grants to six organizations to mark the launch of EndHep2030, “for enhancing and strengthening communications capacity and broadening stake holder engagement,” in addition to its commitment as a seed funder for EndHep2030.
In addition to being a founding donor to EndHep2030, the John Martin Foundation (JMF) has also announced a grant to the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) in honor of the launch of EndHep2030. The grant to WHA is to co-fund one regional hepatitis focal point in the WHO European Regional Office (EURO) and one in the WHO African Regional Office (AFRO) for a period of two years. The focal points will be responsible for coordinating the hepatitis response in the regions.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has committed funding to support EndHep2030’s strategic planning and implementation activities.
ZeShan Foundation has committed marching donations for those from JMF and RWJF to EndHep2030.
Structure of EndHep2030
EndHep2030 has been established as a charitable program under the aegis of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (www.rockpa.org) as its Fiscal and Program Sponsor. It is run by an Oversight Committee comprised of distinguished individuals with long experience of working in viral hepatitis from the fields of public health, academia and patient advocacy, together with major donors.
For more information, please visit www.EndHep2030.org.
Contact:
Wangsheng Li
wangshengli@zeshanfoundation.org