Nairobi To Host East Africa Healthcare Supply Chain Dialogue

Top health and tech stakeholders in the continent are set to convene in Nairobi for the Africa Healthcare Supply Chain Dialogue – East Africa edition. The summit brought together by Pan-African tech firm Xetova, the Ministry of Health, CCA, ARC and Safaricom seeks to bolster the region’s post-pandemic health security by leveraging technology to strengthen supply chains.

Xetova, Safaricom and Kenya’s Ministry of Health are the main organizers of the event that will bring together Ministers of Health from five East African countries, the EAC secretariat, tech leaders, multilateral agencies, financial sector and donor organizations to share insights, leverage key learnings and map out opportunities post the pandemic.

“Healthcare is one of the sectors hardest hit by supply chain challenges during the Covid pandemic. Stakeholders in health service provision including governments and industry players can leverage technology to mitigate against risk, build efficiencies and resilience moving forward, and this forms the core objective of this event,” said Bramuel Mwalo, chief executive officer at Xetova.

He said the pandemic accelerated the adoption of data and AI into the health sector in order to address issues to do with access, efficiency and inform investments, not only in Africa but across the globe.

“Technology continues to make a positive impact in the provision of healthcare and Safaricom continues to invest in a systems strengthening approach as part of our contribution towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of achieving good health and well-being,” said Kris Senanu, Safaricom’s Chief Enterprise Business Officer.

The forum slated for February 22, 2022, at Strathmore Business School will be used to identify opportunities for collaboration between the private sector, public institutions and key stakeholders to redefine access to health care across the continent.

“Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has become a policy priority for our government, aiming to ensure that every citizen has access to quality healthcare services that they need without getting into financial difficulties or poverty. To progress towards UHC, we are working with partners to support a strong, reliable and efficient management of healthcare supply chains which is crucial in enhancing health security, ensuring optimized resource utilization and the proper implementation of Universal Healthcare Coverage programs in the country and we hope these successes can be adopted by sister African governments,” said Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi.

Alongside networking sessions, there will be the Ministerial Roundtable on Re-imagining healthcare supply chains post Covid-19 for health security and resilience, and plenary sessions on Shaping and Leading Healthcare Supply Chains and Redefining the Pathway to Better Well-Resourced Healthcare Systems that Work for Africa.

Leading tech innovators are expected to explore the many ways technology can be leveraged to transform healthcare delivery.

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