The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has selected Gopi Gopalakrishnan, president and founder of World Health Partners (WHP) as Social Entrepreneurs of the Year 2013. Gopalakrishnan has been acknowledged as one of twenty-four global social entrepreneurs.

Gopi Gopalakrishnan said, “It’s heartening to see that WHP’s efforts towards making quality and affordable healthcare available in rural areas are being globally recognized.” He further added, “Our model can be replicated on scale anywhere in the world.The only element that is needed is the entrepreneurial spirit which we find in abundance in every corner of the world, however poor.”

The impact of the award is discussed during a livecast session at The Huffington Post featuring: Hilde Schwab, co-founder and chairperson, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, and David Aikman, senior director, World Economic Forum and head, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

WHP will become part of the broader Schwab Foundation community of Social Entrepreneurs, which includes 234 social entrepreneurs from 59 countries. Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs are fully integrated into the events and initiatives of the World Economic Forum. They contribute actively to and benefit from peer-to-peer exchanges with other social entrepreneurs as well as interaction with top leaders in business, government, civil society and the media.

By taking an innovative market-based approach to health care delivery, WHP improves the quality of rural health care at a large scale by creating a complete service delivery ecosystem. Among its services, it connects informal rural health providers to qualified doctors through telemedicine, thereby providing access to a wide range of critical health services and products.

World Health Partners (WHP) is an international non-profit organisation that provides health and reproductive health services in developing countries by harnessing local market forces to work for the poor, with a focus on serving rural and other especially vulnerable communities.

The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship has identifying the world’s leading social entrepreneurs and involves the community of over 200 award winners in advancing the field of social innovation in collaboration with corporate, government and academic stakeholders. Selected social entrepreneurs of the Schwab Foundation network participate in World Economic Forum events, thus providing unique opportunities for them to connect with business, political and media leaders.