Who is involved?
Perhaps the true innovation in North Star’s approach comes from the unique combination of the skills of the organizations behind it.
North Star was established in November 2006 by commercial logistics provider TNT and the United Nations World Food Programme. In 2007, the group of core supporters was expanded to include the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and UNAIDS. In 2009, the group again expanded to include systems developer ORTEC as the newest core partner.
North Star’s core supporters give it unparalleled knowledge of and access to the companies and trade unions that drive the commercial and humanitarian transport sector. Through in-kind donations (short and long-term) of key personnel and local support facilities they also provide the foundation with the expertise and capacity to build and manage tailor-made distribution networks. Thus North Star has been able to quickly combine cutting-edge management techniques and technology with comprehensive knowledge of local and regional conditions and key players.
Furthermore, North Star’s ability to combine the specialized resources of its core partners with that of strategic and local partners has allowed the foundation to keep its overheads to a minimum ensuring that donor funding is exclusively used for operational activities.
North Star has shown that the transport industry can be effectively mobilized to respond to the threat to healthcare prevention and treatment efforts in Africa that they themselves are creating. Or as the former CEO of TNT, Peter Bakker, puts it: “Just as the transport industry fuels the problem, we can drive the solution.”
Strategic partners
Federation of East and South African Road Transport Associations (FESARTA), Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Netherlands), PharmAccess Foundation and South African Development Community (SADC)
