In-country activities
Kenya | Switzerland supports African conferences to unlock the potential of private sector for achieving UHC in Frontier Economies
“When working in fragile contexts, you realize that an approach to solve health care challenges via an exclusive governmental approach isn’t the solution. The governments of fragile states are fragile themselves. They can’t deliver on health care for their people. Furthermore, you realize that innovative ways of providing health care are found by the people living and working in exactly these fragile circumstances. The private sector in fragile states is providing a whole range of health care solutions that go unnoticed by policy makers and potential global partners, because they evolve in often chaotic and unregulated environments. Nevertheless, the people receive a certain level of health care. There are multiple ways to deliver health care. Multiple players are needed to provide it. To deliver UHC especially to the people of fragile states the involvement of the private sector and homegrown solutions are needed”. Ralf Heckner, Swiss Ambassador to Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda, December 2018.
Indeed, there is an imperative need to challenge the conventional notions that accompany many of the FCAS (Fragile and Conflict Affected States) that have undergone severe economic, social and demographic stress. These economies today, however, present a unique opportunity to private sector actors to access these geographies, and through their focused interventions, revive potential opportunities for investments and sustainable development in these regions.
The Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi, represented by its International Cooperation Department along with other partners (i.a. AMREF Health Africa, Intellecap) is leading a global advocacy effort aimed at (1) Enhancing awareness among private sector stakeholders of opportunities represented by Frontier Economies to strengthen and deliver viable solutions to health systems in these contexts; (2) Promoting increased ownership of Frontier Economies’ policy-makers, practitioners and scholars in the quest for home-grown solutions.
To do this, Switzerland is co-organizing a series of satellite events in 2019 dedicated to the role of the private sector in the achievement of UHC in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. The series builds momentum for the debate on the side-lines of key convenings on the African continent and beyond. Through these sessions, the objective is to de-mystify some of these ‘Frontier Economies’, explain recent economic and political developments, and highlight some of the very real opportunities for investment in these regions.
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