Global Livingston Institute

Jamie Van Leeuwen currently serves as the Director of Public-Private Partnerships with the Emerson Collective. He is also the CEO & Founder of the Global Livingston Institute (GLI), a non-governmental organization in East Africa designed to engage students and community leaders to Listen. Think. Act. by developing innovative solutions to poverty. Prior to this role Jamie served both Mayor and Governor John Hickenlooper for 14 years as a public sector leader in Colorado. He is a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs and became a Fulbright Scholar in 2013 and a Woodrow Wilson International Fellow in 2017.   

Jamie completed his PhD in Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado Denver with an emphasis on affordable housing and homelessness. He has a Master’s degree in International Public Health and a Master’s degree in Sociology from Tulane University.   

Uganda has the tenth highest rate of HIV on Earth. Countless millions of dollars have been poured into Uganda over the years that have gone to building, staffing, and supplying HIV clinics across the country. Large portions of the population are not accessing them, however, especially the youth (ages 16-30). UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) cites fear of stigma and discrimination as the main reason why people are reluctant to get tested, disclose their HIV status and take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs).

Our project uses popular musicians and social influencers to reach hard-to-reach populations with vital public health services. Critically, those who test positive are linked to local health providers in their own communities to ensure accessibility of follow-up. Since 2014, our concerts in East Africa have reached more than 250,000 attendees, tested more than 32,000 for HIV, and distributed more than 3 million condoms. 

There were 50,000 new HIV infections in Uganda in 2017, mainly among adolescents and young people, bringing the total to an estimated 1.3 million people living with HIV. An estimated 26,000 Ugandans died of AIDS-related illnesses last year. "The epidemic is firmly established in the general population. As of 2017, the estimated HIV prevalence among adults (aged 15 to 49) stood at 5.9%" (Avert). 

UNAIDS and the World Health Organization (WHO) cite fear of stigma and discrimination as the main reason why people are reluctant to get tested, disclose their HIV status and take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). This stigma has undermined prevention and treatment efforts leading to further spreading of the disease.

Accessing the youth, raising their levels of awareness about the disease, how it is prevented and treated, and linking to care those who already have the disease has proven enormously difficult for numerous agencies. Many of these people can be impacted by both prevention and testing a significant portion of those at greatest risk for contracting the disease; particularly youth aged 15-30, in their prime sexually active years. These are underserved persons in communities that are hard to reach through traditional public health interventions.

We know we cannot rely on the youth to openly defy social norms and seek out prevention, testing, and treatment for HIV on their own. Thus, we have devised a way to attract this high-risk target population and connect them to vital services. Since 2014, GLI has produced large-scale concerts with top-level local headliners that are free and open to the public. Once on the concert grounds, a wide variety of health services are available including and especially free, rapid result HIV testing and counseling. Entitled the iKnow Concert Series, this innovative initiative has attracted over 250,000 individuals to the musical events, and provided free testing to more than 32,000 of them.

Our innovative approach acknowledges that music has tremendous formative power for individuals and communities. Music is especially important and meaningful to young people in their developmental years, and is connective to behavioral shaping via music heard in the home and community. Young people worldwide during these most sexually-active years are also the most susceptible to HIV infection. The iKnow Concert Series acts as a “social vaccine,” seeking to interrupt HIV transmission through increased information, awareness, and empowerment. 

Thus far our direct beneficiaries have been the citizens of Kabale, Lira, Kampala, Masaka, and Hoima, Uganda, and Kigali, Rubavu, and Musanze, Rwanda. These large-scale free concerts attract youth ages 15-30 predominantly, and many other high-risk groups such as boda-boda drivers, fisherman, truck drivers, and sex workers. While each concert may draw in more than 10,000 individuals, the whole community benefits from the knowledge and resources they gain while attending.

Our organization is founded on the philosophy "Listen. Think. Act." This reflects the unfortunate history of too many well-meaning organizations acting in so-called "developing" countries without listening and thinking first--without getting to know communities. Too often, this perpetuates harmful power dynamics and assumptions (and often inadvertently stifles or competes with local development efforts). We bring hundreds of Americans to East Africa each year, not with the intention of "fixing" anything, but rather with the goal to learn about best practices in development from local leaders and taking what they learn back home to their own communities. 

Collaboration is in our DNA. We partner with locally run Ugandan organizations with deep community roots to implement this initiative and provide ongoing health services. 

We believe that our project aligns with all three dimensions in one way or another. We elevate opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind, by providing a nontraditional vehicle for reaching populations who have historically been hard to reach and serve.

The concert series is called iKnow because of the power of knowing one's status and taking action to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your community. Thus, we fight stigma and misinformation, thereby building awareness, as well as changing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.

When we first conceived of a music festival in rural Uganda, public health was not at the forefront of our minds. We intended to create a dynamic platform for dialogue, cultural exchange, and authentic collaboration. But as we talked with local leaders in preparation for the first festival, we knew our first job (Listen. Think. Act.) was to listen. 

Local health providers engaged in the struggle against HIV/AIDS informed us that our concert was poised to attract a demographic that is historically  underserved and hard to reach. Previous efforts to reach, test, and treat young people were unsuccessful due to a number of factors, including distance, fear, misunderstanding, perceived cost, and stigma. The providers asked if they could set up a testing booth at our festival and we accommodated. 

After running out of HIV tests that first year, we knew we were onto something. So beginning with our festival’s second year, GLI and our community partners formulated an intentional plan to use music and the arts to attract the target populations (namely women, the LGBTQ community, sex workers, people living in poverty, and young people), and launch an innovative public health initiative that is now in its seventh year.

I began my career working with youth experiencing homelessness in both New Orleans and Denver. I spent time on the streets, in shelters, and emergency rooms with vulnerable and marginalized individuals. This work set the stage for what I do today.

While I was working on finding best practices on getting youth off the streets in into housing, I became interested in how the former child soldiers in northern Uganda were being reintegrated back into their communities where they were seen both as victims and perpetrators. So I traveled to East Africa to meet with the former child soldiers and the people working with them, and ended up falling in love with this part of the world.

After examining some of the negative "neocolonial" consequences of traditional NGO influence in Uganda and Rwanda, I wanted to build something different. In 2009, I founded what would become the Global Livingston Institute. That year, I began taking scholars and community leaders over to East Africa to start thinking differently about development. Instead of building schools, they were to build relationships and study the nuances of issues facing communities abroad. I wanted people to spend more time listening and thinking before acting.

For one, we have been doing this work for seven years, and this opportunity would allow us to expand and take this initiative to the next level--more communities, more countries, more music, and more services.

After a decade of working with individuals experiencing homelessness, I was tapped by then-Mayor Hickenlooper to run Denver’s Road Home, the city’s plan to end homelessness. When the Mayor was elected Governor of Colorado, I was asked to run the Governor’s Office of Community Partnerships, where I worked with stakeholders across Colorado to fundraise for and implement social welfare initiatives. I then served as Governor Hickenlooper’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Governor.

Through my work in local and state government, I engaged across sectors to generate over $300 million in new resources for the public good.

Governor Hickenlooper characterizes me as someone who “creates connections and motivates people to engage everywhere he goes. His ability to bring unlikely partners together sets his work apart. He has harnessed enormous resources, energy, and compassion to help us address some of Colorado's most complex problems with enormous compassion and bold creativity.”

If you cannot deal with adversity, working in international development will probably be a crazy-making experience! One setback that comes to mind is fairly recent, during the 2019 iKnow Concert Series. 

We had five years of experience producing large shows in Uganda, but we had never before put on a show in the capital city of Kampala. Much of this was for strategic reasons: our target audiences were rural, hard-to-reach people. But last year, we decided to give Kampala a go. We had brought over our first major American headliner, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and wanted to have a huge show in the capital city to welcome them to Uganda. 

We also happened to be in Kampala on International Women's Day (also a public holiday in Uganda), so we thought to combine our initiative with women's issues by hosting a "Girls Festival." We heavily promoted it...and very few people came. But we learned from the failure. For instance, we had historically relied on radio and word-of-mouth advertising in rural communities. In Kampala, Facebook was the better bet. In early 2020, we partnered with the US Embassy to throw another show in Kampala, and packed the house.

I have been recognized as a leader in my community. Among other recognitions, in 2006 I was named one of “Forty Under Forty” by the Denver Business Journal. In 2011 I was featured in the Power Issue of Out Front magazine as a leader in Lesbian & Gay community and in 2017, CoBiz Magazine named me as one of the 25 Most Powerful People in Colorado.  

I serve on numerous local and national boards. 

But most germane to this project is my work as a professor, leading students on a journey of discovery and reflection as they engage with complex ideas about community and international development. For many students we bring to East Africa, this is their first time on an airplane. Some of our university students have traveled extensively. But no matter the level of experience, we seek to introduce students and community leaders we bring to East Africa to new ways of thinking about how to engage communities in devising solutions to problems. No matter how much you know, the best way to lead in community development is by approaching a problem and a community with humility and assuming that everyone you meet has something to teach you.

Previous efforts by the WHO and various foundations have failed to attract such large numbers of target populations to their health-focused events. But by providing six hours of free, top-level entertainment with local, national, and international artists, young people come in droves. Our local healthcare partners have informed us they are likely to meet 15-20% of their annual testing goals in a single weekend during our concerts. Menzies et al demonstrated that the average cost of standalone HIV counseling and testing (HCT) in Uganda in 2018 USD is $23.49 per person The iKnow concert series provides dozens of health services in addition to HCT, directly attacks stigma, informs and educates, and distributes condoms all at a cost of only $13.21 per person. Thus, we are significantly more effective and cost-efficient than existing models. Our approach is innovative, scalable, powerfully impactful, and already enjoys the benefit of substantial community/stakeholder participation and support. This model is now ready to be replicated in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and the world addressing seemingly intractable social and health problems. We are ready to enter the next stage of our growth and development.

“iKnow” provides much-needed services to rural and semi-rural populations that otherwise would not have access to them. Access to medical treatment is both geographically and financially restricted. While rural areas are home to nearly 80% of the population, only 30% of doctors can be found there. Also, the government relies on donor funding for the healthcare sector. Over 40% of the country’s healthcare spending is funded from external sources, and only 12% of HIV/AIDS funding comes from the Ugandan government. By providing at least $90,000 worth of free services to local populations, the series makes a significant contribution to prevention, testing, and treatment efforts.

This innovation does not rely on youth and marginalized individuals to locate, travel to, and pay for services at local clinics. After years of study and work in the community, we know that musical events are what brings everyone together. Then, we have the performers repeatedly speak out against stigma and encourage everyone to take advantage of the free health services offered right there, in their vicinities. The services are already paid for by our partner health agencies – where previously, their problem was getting enough people to utilize them. Meanwhile, we attract massive crowds of people that would otherwise never be seen near an HIV clinic. This model is more cost-effective and more sustainable than the traditional brick and mortar clinic. It is also more culturally appropriate. It can be replicated in Congo and Haiti, it can be used to help end Polio in Pakistan and Nigeria, and it can be used to help fight stigma and encourage breast cancer screening across Latin America.

Given proper funding and support, this initiative is eminently scalable. In a given year in East Africa (pre-COVID), we could serve up to 75,000 people at concerts, and test approximately 10% of them for HIV. Our largest concert, in Kabale, Uganda, typically attracts nearly 20,000 people.

2020 is a bit of an unknown for an initiative that is built on a large public gathering, but we do plan to use our new digital capabilities to host a large World AIDS Day event on December 1, despite possible restrictions on travel and events.

Assuming expansion to new communities, we estimate that in five years, we could more double our impact and serve 200,000 people per year, providing them with health services and messages tailored to their own communities' needs.

Over the next year, we hope to build out our online capabilities to deliver these services even if large public gatherings are not possible due to COVID-19. We hosted a concert on Instagram Live on May 1 that was well-received in Rwanda. 

Within the next five years, we hope to continue developing ways to reach new populations, expand services, and, critically, track follow-up and adherence to treatment plans after the concert. We have begun some of this work in conjunction with academic partners and hope to continue building strong partnerships with local organizations that will facilitate this improved follow-up. We are also exploring taking this concept to new countries, including those named above.

We plan to continue to work with a multitude of local, national, and international partners. Organizations with whom we have worked previously and who have already agreed to work with us going forward include:

• Reach A Hand Uganda (RAHU) (www.reachahand.org), a Ugandan NGO, provides community outreach and coordinates across Uganda to engage local musicians. They are the lead local agency we work with in planning and implementing this initiative. RAHU volunteers work to promote the iKnow events, gaining access to highly vulnerable populations in the more rural and remote areas. We have worked with them consistently since 2014

• AIDS Information Centre and Reproductive Health Uganda coordinates all of the HIV testing at the festivals. (www.aicug.org & www.rhu.or.ug)

• Entusi Retreat Center employs 18 local staff to support the day to day planning of the series and is the base of this initiative.

• Rotary International provides volunteers and logistical support

Additional financial support has and will continue to be provided by:

•  The US Embassy in Uganda

•  Arrow Electronics

•  Rotary International

•  AIDS Healthcare Foundation

•  Ultra Mobile 

 •  Metairie Bank

Each year, we raise funds to provide this service to communities. In 2019, we raised nearly $300,000 from a variety of public, philanthropic, and individual donors.

Pending COVID-19's impact on our ability to deliver services, we anticipate 2020 expenses of approximately $100,000.

We are a collaborative organization that always seeks new ideas and energy to support the communities we serve. The Elevate Prize would introduce our concept to new partners and connect us with a network of changemakers who can take our successes to the next level as we seek to increase our impact.