Call for Nominations 2003 Gates Award for Global Health

WASHINGTON -- The Global Health Council is now accepting nominations for the annual Gates Award for Global Health.  Established in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the award seeks to recognize an organization that has made a major and lasting contribution to the field of global health.  The award comes with a $1 million honorarium. 

The Gates Award jury considers the following criteria in selecting the award recipient: extraordinary contributions toward progress in the knowledge and practice of health in low-income societies, demonstrated leadership, an established record of achievement, innovation in program design, organizational capacity, collaboration with others, evidence that contributions have been adopted across geographic and organizational boundaries, and substantial impact on health around the world.

Any organization from any country that has substantively improved the health and the lives of people in need may be nominated for the Gates Award; the organization may be a charitable institution, a private company, or a public entity.  In submitting nominations, emphasis should be placed on an organization's accomplishments and global impact. 

The 2002 award recipient was Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.  Rotary has contributed more than $462 million toward polio eradication, and has mobilized over one million Rotary members to help immunize more than 2 billion children in 122 countries. 

In 2001, the first-ever Gates Award was presented to the Centre for Health and Population Research.  Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the Centre focuses on addressing health conditions prevalent in developing countries and associated with poverty.  The Centre pioneered the discovery and development of oral rehydration solution (ORS), which today saves the lives of 2.5 million children each year from diarrhea, the sickness that used to be the leading infectious killer in the world.

The winner of the 2003 Gates Award will be determined in the spring.  The award will be presented in Washington, DC, on Thursday, May 29, 2003 at a dinner during the Global Health Council's 30th annual international conference, "Our Future on Common Ground: Health and the Environment." 

Nominations must be received at the Global Health Council's Vermont office by December 5, 2002.  For more information on the nominations process or to submit a nomination, contact Terry Fisher, awards coordinator, at [email protected] or (802) 649-1340, extension 2128, or visit the Global Health Council's website: http://www.globalhealth.org/awards.

The Global Health Council is the world's largest membership alliance dedicated to advancing policies and programs that improve health around the world.

On the Internet:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, www.gatesfoundation.org

Global Health Council,  www.globalhealth.org