I have more than eight years’ experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having held several roles of increasing responsibility across medical, market access, pricing and government affairs functions at country and regional level, and currently serve as Associate Director, Government Affairs, Global Sustainability – Access to Healthcare.
As part of my role, I lead implementation of the policy and government affairs strategy for AstraZeneca’s Access to Healthcare (A2H) programmes, working with different stakeholders to shape policy and improve access to healthcare at country and global level. This also involves securing enduring partnerships in line with United Nations (UN) global targets, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 and 17.
Access to healthcare has been identified as one of the biggest global challenges that the world has to address in the 21st century.1 I enjoy being part of a team that is taking on this challenge to make a meaningful impact in the world by transforming health systems through partnerships with like-minded stakeholders across governmental and/or private sectors.
In the past five-plus years, I have worked closely with governments and other stakeholders across Africa to address some of the critical policy and implementation issues with regard to access to healthcare for patients living with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) through the Healthy Heart Africa (HHA) Programme – with hypertension as the entry point.
By acting locally to identify the gaps, drawing from implementation experience in other areas, the HHA programme has contributed to strengthening health systems and improving resilience in tackling the rising burden of NCDs. This is achieved through development of national treatment guidelines, training of healthcare workers, integrated NCD prevention, and strengthening supply chain capacity to ensure consistent availability of appropriate treatments where required.2
I’m passionate about sustainable partnerships and believe that, by leveraging the different strengths of many, we can make a meaningful and lasting impact in providing access to healthcare for all.
According to the WHO, at least half of the world's population cannot obtain essential health services.[3] This means that there is more we can do to improve access to healthcare. Programmes such as HHA are a platform that brings together different actors, such as communities, patients, governments, non-governmental organizations and industry, to work together, draw on complementary capabilities and magnify the impact beyond the sum of its parts.
References
1. World Economic Forum. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/02/who-healthcare-challenges-2020s-climate-conflict-epidemics/. Last accessed September 2020
2. Healthy Heart Africa. Available at: https://www.astrazeneca.com/sustainability/access-to-healthcare/healthy-heart-africa.html. Last accessed September 2020
3. World Bank and World Health Organization. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/13-12-2017-world-bank-and-who-half-the-world-lacks-access-to-essential-health-services-100-million-still-pushed-into-extreme-poverty-because-of-health-expenses. Last accessed September 2020
Veeva ID: Z4-27076
Date of prep: September 2020