12 Feb 2019
Public-private participation in healthcare is failing the majority of Africans. There is a need for a new and more effective approach. The Africa Business: Health Forum– already being dubbed “the African Davos” – will bring together Africa’s foremost CEOs and business leaders, as well as a number of heads of state, ministers and health experts, to start thinking differently about how to collaborate to tackle health challenges on the continent.Join us on 12 February in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!
Through greater dialogue, collaboration and by putting some of Africa’s most entrepreneurial minds together, we are convinced that we can bring innovative and creative solutions to the problem and channel more capital to the sector, all while mitigating risks for greater investment.
Why a health forum?
To fully leverage Africa’s potential, it is critical to overcome the challenge posed by deficiencies in health. Despite great strides in the improvement of certain social indicators, Africa still has the lowest average life expectancy and some indicators – such as infant and child mortality rates – are two times the global average.
Governments alone cannot be expected to tackle this problem. As home to the world’s fastest-growing population, urgent action is needed now to put together the foundations of a healthier and more productive future for all Africans.
What do we aim to achieve?
The Africa Business: Health Forum seeks to convene public and private sector industry stakeholders to advance health outcomes. Following on from the forum, we will build a coalition of private sector players across the continent to put health at the centre of their human capital strategy and channel capital and innovations towards the health sector.
The wheels are already turning. In Nigeria, for example, a number of foundations have geared their activities towards health, funding start-ups and platforms that foster entrepreneurial activity in healthcare. By scaling such initiatives to the whole continent and mobilising private sector capabilities to focus on innovation, partnerships, advocacy and impact investments, we can literally save millions of lives. This is not just doing good, but changing the business paradigm through greater productivity and greater development.
The underexploited African healthcare sector represents a wealth of opportunity, which offers quick wins and provides avenues for collaboration in other sectors.
For our launch forum, the dialogue will be centred on “Health as a Major Economic Driver”.This will include discussion of domestic mobilisation of funds for health and necessary health research and development, with insights from successful partnerships between public and private actors.