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| Professor Willem A. Landman, CEO, Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicSA) |
Willem Landman , Ph.D., grew up during apartheid in South Africa, an experience that ignited a passion for justice and helped him become a powerful force for social change in his country.
Today, Dr. Landman uses that same directness to build consensus and foster positive change form the inside out as chief executive officer of the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicSA), a non-profit organization that promotes and advances ethical practices in health care, business and government. In 2000, The Merck Company Foundation provided the seed capital to start EthicSA and to date has donated more than $3 million to help fund the organization.
EthicSA is tasked with helping companies establish codes of conduct, writing ethics guidelines for doctors, and training business and government leaders to become ethics officers in their own organizations.
“South Africa has experienced an erosion of ethical values in a wide range of institutions and practices, “Dr. Landman says. “Through violent crime, fraud, corruption and other unethical practices, we pay an enormous price in terms of resources and human suffering. The Ethics Institute is an institutional response to the need for moral renewal, and we have been able to play a crucial role in creating a new discourse on ethics and corporate governance in South Africa. The Merck Company Foundation’s support and insight made our organization possible, and by doing so, it is helping South Africa heal itself from a painful past and create a promising future.”
EthicSA’s first tasks included conducting an ethics assessment of the largest public hospital in the Southern hemisphere and helping the South African Revenue Service establish an ethics office. The center recently conducted a series of ethics awareness training courses for senior managers and executives of the Central Bank of Nigeria, aiming to improve the integrity of Nigerian banks.
One of EthicSA’s most sweeping charges was to create “whistle blowing” policies to help detect and prevent fraud for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a multinational organization that aims to increase resources to fight these diseases. Dr. Landman crafted two policies – one of the world’s largest whistle-blowing efforts. Both policies establish a line for stakeholders to call to report fraud without fear of reprisal.
“The potential for corruption and fraud in big organization is enormous,” Dr. Landman says. “For The Global Fund, setting a firm policy that would enable stakeholders to feel safe to report suspected fraud is critical to protect the organization’s humanitarian mission.”
Asking Dr. Landman what he wants his legacy to be prompts a typically direct, but passionate response.
“I hope that I can create processes that will help make South Africa a better place,” he says. “I’m lucky enough to take small steps toward this goal every day through the Ethics Institute.”
For more information on the EthicSA and other ethics centers supported by The Merck Company Foundation, click here.
The Merck Company Foundation, a U.S.-based, private charitable foundation, was established in 1957 by the global research-driven pharmaceutical company Merck & Co., Inc. The Foundation is funded entirely by Merck and is its chief source of funding support to qualified non-profit, charitable organizations. The mission of the Foundation is to support organizations and innovative programs that: expand access to medicines, vaccines and quality health care; build capacity in the biomedical and health sciences; promote environments that encourage innovation, economic growth and development in a fair and ethical context; and support communities where Merck has a major presence. For more information, visit www.merckcompanyfoundation.org.
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