When zero is better than billion dollar deals

When zero is better than billion dollar deals

John Hewko loves to hear the word “zero”.

It echoes back to him daily from around the world – except for Pakistan and Afghanistan. The two countries are the last bastions of polio, the virus that can cause breathing problems, paralysis and death.

But Hewko believes he will hear the perfect score by 2018. There will be no new reported cases of polio. It will be zero – everywhere.

Hewko is secretary general of Rotary International, the 110-year-old service organisation that started the Global Polio Eradication Initiative 25 years ago. With the help of global health partners and benefactors like Bill and Melinda Gates, the incidence of polio since then has been reduced 99%.

Hewko will be in New Zealand this month (subs: May 11-17) to meet with Rotarians to share the latest news on polio – and the positive effect it has had on other health problems in many parts of the world.

He told a gathering of Rotary’s leaders recently that the labs, administration, data, and expertise that Rotary has developed in fighting polio have been crucial in the efforts to combat malaria, measles - and Ebola. The successful model created in the polio eradication programme has been emulated in terms of health care with some very encouraging results.

Prior to joining Rotary International, from 2004 to 2009 Hewko was vice president for operations and compact development for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a US government agency established in 2004 to deliver foreign assistance to the world’s poorest countries.

At MCC, he was the principal negotiator for foreign assistance agreements to 26 countries in Africa, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union. He completed the negotiation of assistance agreements totalling US$6.3 billion to 18 countries for infrastructure, agriculture, water and sanitation, health, and education projects.

Hewko holds a law degree from Harvard University, a master’s in modern history from Oxford University (where he studied as a Marshall Scholar), and a bachelor’s in government and Soviet studies from Hamilton College in New York.

He has been a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has published papers and spoken extensively on political and business issues dealing with the former Soviet Union, Central Europe, Africa, and Latin America. He is also a member of the Council of Foreign Relations.

As Rotary’s general secretary, Hewko leads a diverse staff of 800 at Rotary International’s world headquarters in Evanston, Illinois and seven international offices.

ends

© Scoop Media