Lieve Fransen is a senior adviser to the
European Policy Centre
The European Policy Centre (EPC) is a Brussels-based not-for-profit think tank on European Union affairs, founded in 1997.
Activities
Under the guidance of Herman Van Rompuy, the EPC's Chief Executive is Fabian Zuleeg, a German economist. It ...
on health, social and migration policies, and published studies on investing in social infrastructure,
energy poverty
Energy poverty is lack of access to modern energy services. It refers to the situation of large numbers of people in developing countries and some people in developed countries whose well-being is negatively affected by very low consumption of e ...
and social investment. Between 2011 and 2015 she was the social policies director in the Directorate for Employment and Social affairs for the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
in charge of social policies, poverty eradication, pensions, health and social protection. Before that she was director for communication and representations in the EC's communication directorate for more than 500 networks across the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
and from 1987 till 1997 she was head of unit for human development in the European Commissions department for development.
Career
Fransen started her career as a physician in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
during the 1970s and 1980s (mainly in
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
,
Kenya
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and
Rwanda), with a particular interest in public health, infectious diseases and
sexually transmitted infections. In several African countries she developed new initiatives and ensured implementation through international cooperation and strategic planning.
In 1987, the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
hired Fransen as a consultant from the
Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp
The Institute of Tropical Medicine ( nl, Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde, ITG; french: Institut de médecine tropicale, or IMT), officially known as Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine, is one of the world's leading institutes for ...
to survey blood transfusion and HIV seropositive rates in
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...
.
This led the European Commission in 1987 to help Uganda set up a safe blood supply,
and then to create the AIDS Task Force,
an international foundation of which Fransen was the founding executive director.
In 2000, giving evidence to the UK
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
International Development Committee, Jeff O' Malley, the founding director of the
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, referred to Fransen as "the EC's HIV/AIDS expert".
In 1993 she joined the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
as the Head of the Health, AIDS and Population Sector.
Glenys Kinnock
Glenys Elizabeth Kinnock, Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead (''née'' Parry; born 7 July 1944), is a British politician and former teacher who served as Minister of State for Europe from June to October 2009 and Minister of State for Africa and the ...
MEP noted that, following Fransen's appointment to the EC in 1987, spending on the EC's Health, HIV/AIDS and population programmes "had increased from 1 per cent of EC aid in 1986 to more than 8 per cent in 1998".
Fransen was in charge of negotiating
tiered pricing for
pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field an ...
products for
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
; by 2002, however, she saw the debate on tiered pricing as becoming too difficult and too legalistic, and believed that more needed to be done to ensure access to medicines at cheaper prices in developing countries than in the West.
During this period, she was also guest editor for the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
's policy research department. In 2001 she became head of the social and human development unit at the EC's
, in charge of
social protection
Social protection, as defined by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, is concerned with preventing, managing, and overcoming situations that adversely affect people's well-being. Social protection consists of policies and ...
,
employment,
health
Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...
,
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
and
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures ...
.
She was a founding board member and board vice-chair of the
Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, t ...
(GFATM),
representing the
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
and several EU member states from 2000 to 2007,
where she helped create a large
public/private partnership and performance-based fund, which approved around $7 billion in grants over four years.
After leaving the EU in 2015, she became a senior policy advisor for the think tank, the European Policy Center or EPC and started working as a senior advisor for the Royal Philips health technology company in the Netherlands and in Africa. She helped guide the transformation of the company towards contributing to the sustainable development goals or SDGs. She organised a conference during UNGA in New York for the private sector to spearhead transformations towards the SDGs and helped set up the SDG platform in Kenya.
In 2016-2017 she coordinated an expert group for the task force chaired by President Prodi to catalyse investments in social infrastructure in the EU.
With the emergence of the Corona virus in 2020 she wrote and mobilised about the need to invest in manufacturing capacities for vaccines and other pharma products in Africa and Europe and the opportunity to increase resilience through a real partnership. She also contributed to the debate about Democracy and COVID-19.
In 2020 she co created the platform for transformative technologies to contribute to reach the SDGs and climate goals (P4TT.org) and became a senior partner in the organisation.
Education
Fransen holds a PhD from the
University of Antwerp
The University of Antwerp ( nl, Universiteit Antwerpen) is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UA'', but ''UAntwerpen'' is more recently used. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 stud ...
in social policies and public health.
Works
Fransen has written more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous policy documents for the
European Council and the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
including:
*Reproductive Tract Infections in Mozambique: A Case Study of Integrated Services, Rui Bastos dos Santos, Elena Maria Pereira Folgosa, Lieve Fransen in ''Reproductive Tract Infections: Global Impact and Priorities for Women’s Reproductive Health'' (1992)
Plenum Press
Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing.
Originally founded in 1842 i ...
*''Confronting AIDS: Evidence from the Developing World'' Martha Ainsworth, Lieve Fransen, Mead Over (eds.) (1998)
European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...
*Social Investment for a Cohesive and Competitive European Union, Evelyn Astor, Lieve Fransen, Marc Vothknecht in ''The Uses of Social Investment'' (2017)
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
*Boosting social infrastructure investment by Lieve Fransen and Edoardo Reviglio. 2017
Recognition
She was awarded
Senegal
Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...
's
National Order of the Lion
("One People, One Goal, One Faith")
, eligibility =
, criteria =
, status = Active
, founder =
, head_title = Grand Master
, head = Macky Sall
, head2_title = Grand Chancellor
, head2 ...
(1999) for special merit in the fight against
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
and she received the
Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights
The Global Health Council is a United States-based non-profit leading networking organization "supporting and connecting advocates, implementers and stakeholders around global health priorities worldwide". The Council is the world's largest membe ...
(2001).
She was awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2003 in India for het health and human rights work.
References
External links
Social impact of digitalisation 2018
Social infrastructure with the European long term investors 2017
Social investment at the EPC 2016
Energy Poverty at the EPC 2017
Europe Direct Networks Annual Report 2009Annual Report of the Europe Direct Information Centres 2008The European Union: A Strategic Approach Article on Sexual Violence, Forced Migration Review, Issue 27, 01/2007
Towards a future and some hope Article, Global Future, Second Quarter 2004
Cost-effectiveness of improved treatment services for sexually transmitted diseases in preventing HIV-1 infection in Mwanza Region, Tanzania Article, The Lancet, Volume 350, Issue 9094, Pages 1805 - 1809, 20/12/1997
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fransen, Lieve
HIV/AIDS activists
HIV/AIDS in Africa
Living people
European civil servants
1950 births
Belgian public health doctors
Belgian officials of the European Union
Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Senegal