Sania Nishtar to Receive Innovation Award from the Rockefeller Foundation

NEW YORK, July 26, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rockefeller Foundation today unveiled the names of the individuals and institutions that will be honored as part of its first annual Innovation Awards ceremony on July 27, 2011 in New York.

Pakistan's Dr. Sania Nishtar, founder and president of the NGO think tank Heartfile, will receive an innovation award from the Foundation for her unique contributions to the field of global health. Other award recipients include President Bill Clinton, Jane Weru, executive director of the Akiba Mashinani Trust in Kenya and representatives from the microfinance organization Kiva in the Classroom.

As a renowned leader in health policy in her native Pakistan, a leading voice in the global health community, and a prolific author, Dr. Nishtar's advocacy focuses on a holistic vision of health that promotes the wellbeing not only of individuals, but also of communities and nations.

"At the Rockefeller Foundation, we are on a constant search for innovative solutions with a social impact and that means not just new products, but also new ways of organizing people, processes and markets to meet today's human needs," said Dr. Judith Rodin, President of the Rockefeller Foundation. "The Rockefeller Foundation has been following the innovative organizational changes of Dr. Sania Nishtar and her team for many years, and we applaud her efforts in helping to bring enhanced health systems to the region."

Heartfile, a non-government organization and think tank has developed and also inspired a number of innovative programs and policies that focus on health systems. She is also the founder of Pakistan's Health Policy Forum and a sought-after advisor to government agencies, the World Health Organization, and academic institutions.

Dr. Nishtar is known for her strategic use of new platforms, technologies and information systems to improve health systems. These innovative techniques enabled her to develop a health financing strategy centered on pooling donor investments in a Health Equity Fund through a customized web-based platform that is also integrated with mobile phone technologies.

Dr. Nishtar will receive her award at the Foundation's inaugural Innovation Forum, to be held in Manhattan on July 27, 2011. As part of her recognition, Heartfile will also receive a $100,000 general operating support grant from the Rockefeller Foundation because the Foundation wishes to support its future innovative humanitarian work.

The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Forum

The Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Forum convenes some of the most creative and inventive minds from the worlds of business, government, the non-profit sector and journalism to bring innovation to bear on urgent challenges facing poor and vulnerable people around the world. Through a series of interactions, panel discussions and breakout sessions, participants will analyze compelling scenarios of crises in water security, urban economic security and food security. They will be asked to identify the primary causes of these pressing global challenges that must be solved for the benefit of future generations. In exchange for their contributions, the Rockefeller Foundation will commit to leveraging its deep expertise, expansive network and thoughtful grant making process to further explore and address ideas that surface over the coming year as a result of the Forum. The results will then be reviewed at each annual Innovation Forum.  

The Rockefeller Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation's mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913.  Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization.  Our vision is that this century will be one in which globalization's benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered.  To realize this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in our work.  First, we seek to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses.  Second, we seek to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact.  These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas: basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanization, and social and economic security. For more information, please visit http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org

SOURCE Rockefeller Foundation