On June 4th, was held at the LUISS in Rome the seminar promoted by Anima, with the support of the Italian Railways (FS) and MSD Italy, entitled "Responsibility, Sustainability, Social Innovation: what future?". The purpose of the workshop was to think about the possibility of improvement of the practices of sustainable economic, social and environmental impacts of large companies in Italy.

The seminar was chaired by Matthew Caroli, Professor of International Economics and Business Management at the University LUISS Guido Carli, who has made ​​an introduction about the state of art of the collaborative processes between companies and stakeholders to achieve shared goals and recalled how the Community of Sant'Egidio, through some of its programs such as DREAM, Bravo, Viva Elders, represents a good model of effective partnership with businesses.

At the same time, Professor Caroli stressed that the work of the Community of Sant'Egidio is not limited to the creation of services of solidarity for the weak, but it actually makes culture, as occurred significantly with the International Conference on Philanthropy held in Rome last October.

Then spoke Fabrizio Torella, Director of the Social Activities of the FS, who talked of how the State Railways is giving to associations and municipalities, through free loan contracts, the possibility to dispose of the Railways real estate assets, which are not being used. Within these social initiatives, Torella cited the collaboration agreement with the Community of Sant'Egidio, which foresees the strengthening of the assistance provided through mobile teams of operators in the railway stations of Genoa, Naples and Rome. An important social project that has a positive impact on the territory and on the quality of services offered in those railway stations.

Paola Germano, director of the DREAM Program, was invited to present the initiatives developed in Mozambique in collaboration with Merck Sharp & Dome under the Program “Merck for Mothers”.

It is a public-private partnership launched in 2011 that aims to reduce maternal mortality by at least 75% by 2015, in line with the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations. In just 10 years, MSD has allocated and will allocate 500 million dollars in favor of screening programs, prevention and health, especially in countries in the developing world. It is a comprehensive program in which, however, the Italian subsidiary plays a starring role.

The actions of DREAM under this program have been targeted mainly to the formation of socio-medical staff in Mozambique on issues of maternal health and care of women with HIV in pregnancy. It is estimated that in countries with high HIV prevalence, such as Mozambique, this infection is responsible for about a third of the deaths during pregnancy or close to delivery. In the first year of the project 160 units of health care personnel have been trained, and about 3,000 HIV + pregnant women are followed in several cities and rural areas of Mozambique. These women have been eligible for antiretroviral treatment, medical care, control and laboratory nutritional support, thereby improving their health and giving birth to children who, in 98% of cases were not affected by the virus.

Thanks to the important support of Merck, ​​training sessions of 5 days in 10 health facilities were carried out, half of which are run by the state; all these structures have therefore become able to deliver the service, and the beneficial effects will extend to future years. The sustainability of the program is also guaranteed by the commitment of the Ministry of Health of Mozambique, which provides drugs and reagents for the analysis, as well as the commitment of other international donors, both public and private.

In the seminar it was highlighted that this intervention may represent a model of successful partnership, since it is an approach that integrates the skills and resources of different actors, in the private, public and social sectors.