Success Stories Shared at the East Africa Healthcare Federation Conference

• aca
• June 9, 2015
• Latest News

Rwanda Healthcare Federation hosted the East African Healthcare Federation (EAHF) Conference 2015 in Kigali, Rwanda from 17^th– 19^th May, 2015 at a Rwanda hotel. The Conference’s theme was ‘The Role of the Private Sector in Financial sustainability of Healthcare Delivery Systems.’

The conference was organized into different sessions where different issues within the health sector got to be addressed, among them innovative models for access to healthcare; new regional trends in technology and health; aligning partnership with the private sector (PPPs); Regulations and government policies; Community empowerment through healthcare; Role played by the Private Sector in the Ebola epidemic; Competitive edge improving financial sustainability; Emerging trends in medical travel and tourism; and Key health priorities In the East African region.

Over 250 delegates from the public and private health sectors descended on Kigali for the conference. The attendees represented over forty countries, and brought a wide range of experiences and topics to discuss. This year’s conference set out to discuss the theme “The role of the private sector in financial sustainability of healthcare delivery systems.” Over the course of the two day event, ministry of health representative presented alongside international NGO’s, locally-based entrepreneurs, and multinational corporations to address this essential question. CHMI was able to join the conference and present examples of successful innovations in the region, in addition to the great opportunity of attending and absorbing the insights shared by delegates.

As the prime minister of Rwanda said in his opening remarks, “we would be remiss to incorrectly identify health systems strengthening as primarily a public sector issue.” Real health systems are complex organisms that include the private sphere. In the East Africa region especially, private sector approaches to improving health care have seen a huge amount of growth just in the past decade. The influx of technology, local capacity, and partnerships across sectors and borders have created a more vibrant and better financed system of approaches in providing healthcare to the poor. Of course, these gains have not been exclusive to the private sector. Indeed, as Togo’s Dr. Moise Fiadjoe said, “health is everyone’s business,” no matter the business or partnership model. A key focus of the EAHF is connecting business models with the officials who seek to make health everyone’s right.

“The old way” of doing healthcare in the region, according to many experts on the conference stage, involves too many costs incurred by the end beneficiaries. The steps required to provide basic health care, and do business in the health sector, include middlemen and bottlenecks that worsen stock-outs, decrease available services, and raise the price of care for those who are most desperate for it. New approaches are already in place to combat these deficiencies with cost-sharing, task shifting, and partnerships that improve health systems overall. The EAHF provides a central hub for government, private providers, NGOs, and investors to overcome the barriers between sectors that prevent more rapid improvement.

EAHF President Dr. Amit Thakker emphasized this point, stating

“the extreme benefits to a united region where we share best practices, and have free movement of labor, goods, and services, are immeasurable.”

The session on “Success stories from the region” provided an introduction to the role of the Africa Capacity Alliance and the Center for Health Market Innovations to connect innovators to resources and collaborators. CHMI program director Donika Dimovska gave an overview of the CHMI programs database, network of regional innovation partners, and the range of activities seeking to connect innovative programs to each other to share best practices. In addition to learning more about ACA and CHMI’s work in the region, attendees were introduced to CHMI’s Innovator’s Handbook and Highlights reports showcasing promising innovations.

The 4^th EAHF conference provided a forum to learn from past concerns in the region, and laud potential solutions for the future. Prof. Khama Rogo of the IFC and World Bank inspired the EAHF audience with the question “What must we do to radically and disruptively create health systems that can actually serve us?” The current landscape of health care in East Africa holds tremendous promise for improvements in the public and private sectors, and CHMI is excited to continue identifying and connecting innovators and policy makers to drive this work forward.