WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY 2006

CONCEPT NOTE on THEME and STRAP-LINE

World Health Day 2000, which was focused exclusively on the issue of blood transfusion, set the broader agenda for blood safety, through the theme of “Blood Saves Lives. Safe Blood Starts With Me”. Subsequently, and following a World Health Assembly resolution, World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) was formally established, to be commemorated on June 14 each year. The themes of WBDD 2004 and WBDD 2005, which also focused on individual donors, were articulated as -- “Blood, a Gift for Life. Thank You” and “Celebrating Your Gift of Blood.”

The objectives of the commemorative events/activities of WBDD ’04 and ’05 were relatively straightforward and clear ?to specifically acknowledge and celebrate the contribution and spirit of voluntary non-remunerated blood donation.

However, the moment is now right, for using the WBDD platform more strategically, and to address more complex programmatic and policy issues. Addressing the political and policy environment, in addition to focusing on individual donors, is becoming imperative as a theme for WBDD 2006.

While WBDD 2006 should retain the celebratory nature of WBDD as a core element and leitmotif, the time has come to mobilize social and political leadership around critical, programmatic issues impinging on blood safety and voluntary non-remunerated blood donation; and setting the agenda for realizing the bolder, more ambitious, and longer-term goals for safe blood and blood products. The rationale for this shift in emphasis emerges from the following challenges:

• Of the 81 million units of blood collected each year, only about 40% comes from developing countries where 82% of the world’s population lives. This is a massive imbalance at a global scale, which needs to be urgently redressed.

• Among the more than 40 million people estimated to be living with HIV globally, between 5% and 10% of the infections (accounting for 2-4 million persons) are attributable to transfusion of unsafe blood. Prevalence of Hepatitis B and C, and Syphilis, in donated blood in developing countries is still unacceptably high.

• An overwhelming 99% of the 500,000 women who die each year during pregnancy and childbirth live in developing countries, with haemorrhage the most common cause of maternal deaths. Almost 70% of all transfusions in Africa are given to children with severe anaemia due to malaria, which accounts for about one in five of all childhood deaths in Africa.

• In developed countries, an ageing population coupled with advances in medical treatments and procedures requiring transfusions have seen an increase in demand for blood and blood products.

• Road accidents, injuries and burns continue to rise globally, putting an increased demand for blood.

• Though progress has been significant, a very large number of countries still do not have adequate policies, practices or resources in place to ensure safe blood and blood products. HIV has devastated an entire generation in Africa, and health systems, are being stretched to their limits. Rapidly accelerating HIV epidemics in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and parts of South/South-East Asia pose a serious challenge to national blood transfusion services.

• Voluntary non-remunerated blood donation (VNBD) is considered to be the cornerstone in the strategy for ensuring safe blood and blood products. However, as of 2002, only 39 countries had achieved 100% VNBD. Yet, public education and donor recruitment/retention campaigns in developing countries continue to remain seriously under-staffed and under-resourced. In developing countries, paid and family/replacement donors still constitute a major proportion of blood donors, and only 25% of the donors are VNBDs.

• Even though altruism still remains at the heart of the blood donor movement, evidence suggests that there are wide differences emerging in what compels or keeps donors from donating in developed and developing countries. While issues of convenience of time and place seem to be the key concerns in developed countries, much of the populations in developing countries still need basic awareness to dispel myths, fears and misconceptions. Furthermore, in many countries, the HIV pandemic has fuelled a misplaced fear about acquiring infections during donation, and which needs to be seriously addressed.

• Achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and effective prevention of HIV infection would never be possible without equitable and universal access to safe blood.

Clearly, any theme proposed for WBDD 2006 must straddle both, the programmatic, as well as the public domains. Furthermore, the theme should have the potential to facilitate/catalyze the following:

• Building of stronger and demonstrable political and social commitment at all levels, for VNBD.

• Creation of an enabling environment for the sustained recruitment and retention of VNBDs.

• Approaches that improve access to safe blood by those who need it most, and where they need it most.

• Mobilisation of a wider set of actors, including the private sector, NGOs and the media, to promote VNBD.

• Closer linkages and collaboration between national blood transfusion services and other relevant health and development programs.

While experience has shown that it can be difficult to develop a single, overarching theme (and its related strap-lines/messages) that adequately responds to global, regional as well as country contexts and issues, the following is proposed for WBDD 2006:

• Overarching Theme and Programmatic Goal:  Ensuring Universal Access to Safe Blood

The theme ? “Ensuring Universal Access to Safe Blood” ? deliberately sets an ambitious agenda and challenging benchmark for member states, political leadership, and program mangers of blood transfusion services. It has the potential to capture public imagination and media attention, as well as provoke debate and dialogue around policy and programmatic issues. The notion of “Universal Access” strongly articulates the need for ensuring that adequate and safe blood is available to those who need it most, and where it is most-needed.

• Strap-line articulating the theme: “Safe Blood Saves Lives. Give freely. Give now!”

The strap-line ? “Safe Blood Saves Lives. Give freely. Give now!” emphasizes the centrality of “safe blood” in saving lives. Furthermore, it foregrounds the issue of adequacy of supply and the spirit of volunteerism/non-remuneration in “Give freely”; and finally, it promotes a sense of urgency and reinforces a call to action through “Give now!”

The theme as well as the strap-line, succinctly capture, articulate, and reinforce all the core elements of blood safety through voluntary non-remunerated donation. The theme/strap-line can be creatively rendered into communication products, for different audiences (policy-makers, blood donors, society-at-large, youth, NGOs), and for a variety of contexts/settings (developing countries, developed countries, high/low HIV-prevalence, high/low Malaria prevalence, maternal/child health, injuries/accidents etc). A few examples of creative usage of the theme and the strap-line are annexed to this concept-note as PowerPoint slides.