Partners

Partnerships are at the heart of what we do. Our partners’ support and collaboration allow us to innovate to strengthen healthcare systems and provide access to quality care for everyone, including the most vulnerable.

At PharmAccess, we work towards a future where everyone can access basic, affordable and quality healthcare services. We propel this by using digital and mobile technology, driving systems to change, and improving how healthcare is financed and delivered. We create transformative systems innovations that can be replicated and adopted by others. In the wider healthcare ecosystem, we focus on connecting patients and care professionals through digital transformation at the level of communities.

Innovations have been made possible by the support we receive across a variety of programmes, which enables us to develop and test solutions that will further accelerate the journey towards UHC in sub-Saharan Africa.

We humbly appreciate the renewal of our partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands in 2022, so we can remain at the cutting edge of health systems innovation. The Ministry is our key partner that has enabled us, through the Health Insurance Fund, to develop transformative healthcare financing approaches to strengthen the demand for and supply of healthcare systems. In addition, their support gives us the opportunity to leverage additional funding from public and private entities worldwide.

Since 2015, the National Postcode Lottery (NPL) has provided unearmarked funding to support PharmAccess’ activities to strengthen health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, through its groundbreaking “Droomfonds” initiative, NPL supported the Innovative Partnership for Universal Sustainable Healthcare (I-PUSH). Watch the video here to learn more about the I-PUSH programme.

PharmAccess is a consortium partner in multiple large USAID programmes, in which we focus on strengthening coordination with the private healthcare sector, quality standards (SafeCare) and technical assistance. Programmes we are currently involved in include the Integrated Health Programme (IHP) in Nigeria, Zambia Accessible Markets for Health (ZAMHealth), and HSS Next / Ireme in Rwanda.

Kenya

Health insurance coverage is extremely low in Kenya with just 19.59% of the population covered, leading the lowest-income population to incur catastrophic health expenditures when they need to access care. In recent years, we have been able to map and enrol the lowest income populations of Kisumu County

into Marwa, the County’s social health insurance scheme. While the lowest income population are subsidized by the government, a plan was needed for the slightly more affluent (informal sector) who have to pay for themselves. We are now developing models to enrol informal sector groups in health insurance.

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Zanzibar

Since independence, the Zanzibar government has been providing 'free' healthcare services. Yet this strategy is no longer financially sustainable, with the quality of healthcare services deteriorating and citizens forced to find alternative solutions elsewhere, with high out-of-pocket costs.

To address this, the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (RGoZ) is reforming its health system from a supply-side funded to a demand-side insurance-based model.

PharmAccess is supporting Zanzibar in preparing the island’s healthcare system, setting up the island’s quality rating and improvement system, digitizing processes, identifying those who cannot afford health insurance, and advocating for the passage of the mandatory health insurance law.

PharmAccess also plays a role in developing the investment case for the Health Equity Fund, a fund that will be used to finance health insurance for underserved populations. This will be done by using earmarked taxes from the RGoZ, complemented by funds from development partners.

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Nigeria

Nigeria’s health insurance coverage is just 3%. Together with our partners, we support the Kwara State Health Insurance Scheme (KWSHIS) and the Lagos State Health Scheme in rural and urban Nigeria, respectively. In Lagos, more than 760,000 people have been enrolled in the state health scheme,

up from 300,000 in 2021. In Kwara, enrolment in the state health scheme quadrupled from about 8,000 to more than 41,000. The successes of these two schemes have set an example for other Nigerian states to set up their social health insurance schemes.

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Ghana

While Ghana is among the leaders in the African continent in terms of health insurance coverage, its paper-based insurance claims management system is plagued with inefficiencies. To address this, PharmAccess has been supporting Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to digitize its claims

system, making it more efficient and transparent. The data generated also supports the development of policies and informed decision-making.

Over 3000 facilities have been trained to use the Claim-It app, co-developed by NHIA and PharmAccess, which significantly improves efficiency and reduces pay-out times to healthcare facilities.

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An estimated 60% of deaths from conditions amenable to healthcare are due to poor quality, making poor quality a bigger health issue than poor access. PharmAccess, working together with various public and private partners, has introduced SafeCare to over 6,000 health facilities in Africa and almost 550 birth centers in India as part of the Manyata for Mothers program to improve maternal care in private facilities.

SafeCare is a standards-based stepwise approach to quality improvement that is tailored towards resource-restricted settings. Read more on their website.

SafeCare has seen 81% of facilities improve their quality of care, with various local and national governments using localized SafeCare(-based) standards. With support from our partners, we’ve been able to invest in and expand the SafeCare Quality Platform. Through the Quality Platform, the quality improvement process is digitalized, allowing healthcare providers to log into a platform with their assessment results, benchmark results with peers, and access best practice examples and theme-based improvement campaigns using gamification approaches.

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Even though the private sector provides 50% of all healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa, many private facilities are unable to access the capital they need to make investments in quality. The Medical Credit Fund is the first and only loan fund dedicated to providing health entrepreneurs with the capital they need. As of 2023, MCF has disbursed over 9,000 loans valued at over EUR 158 million to more than 2,000 health SMEs.

We are grateful for all the partners and investors who have supported us in launching and sustaining the Medical Credit Fund.

The need for collateral remains a persistent barrier to obtaining financing for health entrepreneurs. To deal with this, MCF has developed MCF Digital Loans (also called Cash Advance) that do not require this. Read more about MCF and the digital loans.

Besides providing clients with a loan, MCF aims to improve the business and quality performance of health SMEs, thereby building their capacity and resilience. The technical assistance (TA) programme leverages MCF’s long-term experience and tools developed in collaboration with PharmAccess, including the SafeCare programme. The TA Facility is also used for tailor-made TA support.

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In Ghana, an estimated 30% of medicines are considered fake or substandard and the medicine market is dominated by high prices and market imperfections, resulting in poor quality, stockouts and high costs for patients. PharmAccess developed Med4All, a digital medicine procurement platform implemented with the Christian Health Association Ghana (CHAG). Through group purchasing and quality monitoring, Med4all ensures that health facilities have access to medicines that are up to 30% cheaper, with guaranteed quality and availability of life-saving drugs for patients.

High maternal and neonatal mortality rates remain a persistent problem in Africa, even though we know how to prevent them – timely antenatal care visits and professionally assisted birth delivery. PharmAccess is implementing MomCare, a value-based care bundle that allows low-income women to access maternal care and skilled delivery. MomCare is also a good example of how, with digitalization (by using a mobile phone), a patient is directly connected to the healthcare provider,

through which we can collect and use data to improve the quality of care delivery.

The introduction of MomCare in Kenya and Tanzania has led to significant increases in skilled birth delivery and antenatal and postnatal care adherence.

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The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 exposed the weaknesses of healthcare systems all over the world. Many countries, even more so in Africa, turned out to be ill-equipped to efficiently track the spread of epidemic diseases. To address this problem, PharmAccess developed Covid-Diagnostics (Covid-Dx), the first integrated digital dashboard for COVID-19 to inform real-time and accurate policy decision-making in Kisumu, Kenya.

The success of this initiative for COVID-19 led the intervention to be expanded to include over 20 infectious epidemic diseases on the WHO list (Epi-Dx). Since then, this initiative has expanded its scope with research partners beyond Kenya to Ethiopia.

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