On 24^th February 2022, KEPSA, led by the CEO Ms. Carole Kariuki partnered with Africa Health Business (AHB) and other partners in the 7^th Africa Health Business Symposium (AHBS) held at Trademark Hotel in Nairobi under the theme; The Role of Private Sector in Advancing Women’s Health in Africa. The chief guest of the event was the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya H.E Margaret Kenyatta.

Other guests included Dr. Matshidiso Moeti – Regional Director Africa, World Health Organisation (WHO); Dr. Achamyelesh Debela – EA-RCC, Africa CDC; Ms. Susan Mochache – Health Principal Secretary, Kenya; Hon. Anifa Bangirana – State Minister for Health, Republic of Uganda; Hon. Adeleke Mamora – Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria; Hon. Ali Mohammed – Minister of Health Development, Somaliland; H.E Dorothy Nyong’o –Kisumu County First Lady among others. The event, which was organized by AHB led by the Executive Chairman, Dr. Amit N. Thakker and Managing Director Ms. Marloes Kibacha, brought together public sector, private sector, development partners, other stakeholders and 1,367 delegates (233 attending in person and 1134 attending virtually) from 86 countries around the world.

Speakers of the opening session included First Lady of the Republic of Kenya H.E Margaret Kenyatta (virtually); Health Principal Secretary Ms. Susan Mochache; KEPSA CEO Ms. Carole Kariuki; Regional Director Africa, World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Matshidiso Moeti (virtually); Vice President, Hologic Ms. Tanja Brycker (virtually); Africa Network Lead, Roche Diagnostics Dr. Allan Pamba; Managing Director, Organon SA & SSA Dr. Abofele Khoele; Coordinator, EA-RCC, Africa CDC Dr. Achamyelesh Debela. The speakers underscored the need to engage in partnerships to contribute meaningfully in advancing women’s agenda in response to the unmet health needs that have been exacerbated.

Dr. Abofele Khoele noted that the reversal of some of the gains due to Covid-19 pandemic is a cause of great concern and should be an area of priority. He said, however, there are various challenges the continent has faced when developing solutions that are relevant to Africa and that can help in accelerating the improvement of women’s health, which includes the global gender data gap. He underscored the need for collaborations and understanding important trends are some of the things that can help Africa to tailor solutions specific to the needs of African women. He challenged participants to take up the lessons of the symposium to implement solutions that would benefit every woman across the continent.

Ms. Brycker highlighted the importance of data as an essential part in advancing women’s health in Africa. She said that Hologic has launched the Global Women’s Index, a new global survey to document the status of women’s health and track the women health changes over time and by country in the next 8 years. Dr. Pamba urged participants to act with a sense of urgency as they think critically on solutions that are crosscutting especially in dealing with cancer. 

In her remarks, Ms. Kariuki appreciated the World Health Organisation (WHO) for nominating Kenya as one of the six countries in Africa to receive tools to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, adding that KEPSA has been keen in urging governments in the region to invest on mitigative initiatives. Top of the list has been the establishment of a regional Vaccine production facility by the East Africa Community (EAC) Partner States.

Ms Kariuki further said that KEPSA believe that women are the foundation for economic and social development in the society while noting that women face a daunting range of health threats that were escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic where women and girls were impacted in different ways thus underscoring the need to promote and protect women’s health.

Noting that KEPSA has been at the forefront in championing the women’s agenda, Ms. Kariuki highlighted some of the interventions that KEPSA has put in place to address the challenge that women have been facing. These include; the Wheels for Life Initiative that was launched in 2020 to support pregnancy-related medical emergencies at night during the curfew hours; Tele medical services to enable patients’ access medical services while limiting person to person contact; Resource mobilization to provide PPEs for Covid-19 response; Partnering with the Government in Covid-19 vaccination drive to accelerate the pace of vaccinations among other initiatives.

In addition, KEPSA is implementing a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) advocacy program to create an enabling environment for the elimination of GBV, scale-up evidence-driven prevention programming and enhance access to services for survivors through the private sector intervention; development of the private sector gender mainstreaming that will be launched during the International Women’s Day; Better Business Practices for Children (BBPC) initiative that aims at leveraging and scaling up private sector intervention in line with the National Initiatives of promoting and improving Maternal Infant and Young Child Nutrition (MIYCN) practices through advocacy for Breast Milk Substitutes Act (2012), and leading in the establishment of lactation rooms in workplaces;

In her conclusion, the KEPSA CEO appreciated the Government of Kenya for its effort in accelerating the attainment of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the engagement of the private sector in the implementation of the programme with a view of addressing the income vs. healthcare cost disparities while calling upon all partners and stakeholders to work in the same.

Africa CDC’s Dr. Debela said that the organisation aims to support African Union member States in their efforts to effectively detect, prevent and respond to public health concerns based on science, data and policy. She attributed the successful response of Covid-19 pandemic to the action-oriented partnerships, saying that diseases have no boundaries and therefore, Africa should not have boundaries in terms of collaborations. She said lack of awareness, technology, screening, inadequate health-seeking behaviour, accessibility of health facilities, shortage of diagnostics, inadequate workforce, affordability of healthcare are some of the challenges affecting the journey of tackling cancer in Africa.  She however said that the convergence of public and private sector creates an opportunity to maximize capacity to mitigate socioeconomic impact of health problems in Africa.

The Africa WHO Director noted that collective action is required and this is the reason why SDG 17 calls for renewed government approach based on cooperation and collaboration between government, civil society and business. “There is an urgent need to build the health capacity of all countries. This requires that all service providers, public and public, collaborate to contribute effectively and efficiently to advancing the achievement of universal health coverage,” She said, adding that the private sector has a key role to plays pointing out that the private sector delivers 50% of all health services in Africa that account for 50% of total expenditure and 60% of healthcare financing.

The Health Principal Secretary Ms. Mochache noted the need to forge transformative partnership to harness contributions by various stakeholders in the journey towards the achievement of UHC, giving examples of the collaborations between the government and the private sector in response to Covid-19 pandemic, including the vaccine drive. In regards to NHIF cover, she noted that 5 million vulnerable households have been targeted to be enrolled to the NHIF UHC cover. She concluded by urging for more investments in the women’s health needs.

In her keynote speech, the First Lady H.E Margaret Kenyatta said that the symposium has come at a good time to remind us of the commitments, challenges and progress made towards ending preventable maternal deaths.  She further highlighted the importance of forging more partnerships, prioritization and dedication of resources and need to speak with a more unified voice to overcome challenges and achieve zero maternal death. She highlighted programmes that her office has undertaken toward achievement of SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) through the beyond zero campaign marathons and medical safaris, which has accelerated investments in mobile clinics to address reproductive health challenges. The event featured a number of breakout and plenary sessions that sought to further unpack the role of the private sector in advancing and investing in women’s health agenda. This included Reducing the cancer threat for women; Opportunities for Health Investment in Kenya; Women’s empowerment through Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child (RMNCH); UHC: Improving health and wellbeing in Africa; Recognising African leaders in advancing women’s health on the continent; and Strengthening Health Systems in Africa.