In less than a decade, International Medical Services for Health (INMED) has grown from the vision of one person, Dr. Linda Pfeiffer, an anthropologist and international health specialist, to 22 staff that facilitate relations among 2000 NGOs and top health agencies and industries for improving health. Today INMED's programs build partnerships with local agencies to plan and secure quality, essential medicines and medical supplies and to develop health-education strategies and related materials in over 93 countries.
What is most striking about the work of this PVO is that it does nothing to stand alone: INMED serves as a catalyst to bring together people from different walks of life to collaborate to prevent and control disease. It is widely shared among INMED staff that this is the most crucial role their organization can play in international development. Indeed, training and technical assistance are not enough; there is a greater need to bring diverse, indigenous groups together with networks of people with power in industry, government, and the private voluntary sectors to co-create solutions. It is assumed that no set of actors can be ignored, for each has a stake and influence on global health issues. Much of the work of INMED, therefore, involves locating, and linking together the major actors - existing and potential - around specific international health concerns.
This mandate is accomplished through a variety of innovative initiatives intended to catalyze collaboration. For example, INMED's "Millennium" program unites health agencies with the expertise and resources of the medical and pharmaceutical industry that supports the global efforts of the World Health Organization. Each year a global meeting is held for representatives from industry, government, academia, foundations, and private voluntary and service organizations on a vital area of international health. Much more than a typical conference or workshop, this annual event is an act of cross-sectoral collaboration: together these diverse groups examine existing health care models, exchange experiences, propose new approaches, create shared resolutions, and foster partnerships for cooperative strategies to resolve pressing health care problems. Perhaps most valued is the fresh dialogue that emerges between large Northern institutions and small Southern NGOs which leads to new levels of understanding and collaborative solutions to local situations.
Organizers and participants point to several key organizational factors that have contributed to the success of the six Millennium Conferences. Because INMED's modus operandi is partnership, meaningful relationships have already been built with the organizational representatives that attend, many of whom are some of the most innovative persons in their respective institutions. The conference topics chosen, moreover, are of high relevance to all of the sectors, such as on urban health challenges, the prevention of worm diseases, and children and youth promoting healthy behaviors. Indeed, much time is spent before the conference building consensus for the topic as well as the goals and outcomes of the event. Furthermore, the sharing of success stories inspires provocative and applicable learning about new ideas and methodologies, and the attention to implications and resolutions tends to spawn new cross-sectoral action. It is reported that many linkages, such as between funders and program implementers, PVOs and NGOs and medical suppliers and local health agencies, have been facilitated through this process.
INMED enacts its role as catalyst through other unique organizational activities such as their work with children as agents of social change. INMED catalyzes collaboration for disease prevention by training primary school teachers in practices of good health, who in turn instruct children and motivate them to become powerful, positive influences on their peers, families and communities. Once children understand the causes and effects of disease, they enthusiastically share what they have learned and translate lessons taught in messages through songs and games. This strategy recognizes children's inherent potential as leaders through their community position of trust and affection, their willingness to talk and ask questions, and their ability to learn quickly and effectively communicate new information. In this manner INMED has involved over two million children in 11 countries as essential, visible and productive participants in development.
By these illustrations we can see that INMED's greatest strength and most important role is served as a catalyst of health partnerships within and between sectors throughout the world. Indeed, it is impossible to describe the work of INMED without referring to their meaningful relationships with any number of its partners-from the World Health Organization, to Smith Kline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, to the teachers, parents, and children of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. Much like a choreographer that puts others on stage and evokes their best, INMED derives its very identity and relevance as a PVO as an active co-creator of partnerships for global health.
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