PharmAccess is a group of non-profit organizations dedicated to improving access to quality healthcare in Africa. PharmAccess mobilizes public and private resources for the benefit of doctors and patients through clinical standards and quality improvements, loans for healthcare providers, health insurance, mHealth innovations and operational research.
This integrated approach is made possible by the following organizations:
PharmAccess is an entrepreneurial organization with a digital agenda dedicated to connecting more people to better healthcare in Africa.
Technological innovation is disrupting virtually every industry across the globe. In Africa, almost everyone has access to a mobile phone. We believe that mobile technology is on the verge of disrupting healthcare in Africa in a way that none of us can fully imagine yet.
To capitalize on this opportunity, PharmAccess has initiated a digital platform that connects all players in the market – bringing transparency, accountability and direct access to and for end-users. The wealth of data generated is opening up unprecedented avenues to improve healthcare quality and financing. This mobile technology makes it possible to connect everybody at close-to-zero transaction costs, building trust and a new kind of solidarity. We are currently working with a growing number of public and private partners to develop digital services and products in the different countries where we work.
In addition, we continue to mobilize public and private resources to increase access to care through health insurance and new, digital forms of health financing like mobile health contracts. We help healthcare providers get access to loans, so that they can invest in improving quality of service. And we developed the international SafeCare standards, which stimulate quality improvement, enable benchmarking and lower risks. Finally, we evaluate the effectiveness of our approach through ongoing operational and impact research. International attention for this approach includes three Financial Times/IFC awards and the OPIC Impact Award and two recognitions from the OECD DAC Prize for Taking Development Innovation to Scale.
PharmAccess was founded in 2001 by Joep Lange to bring life-saving antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS treatment to Africa. Initially, PharmAccess focused on treatment programs for employees and dependents of several multinationals in sub-Saharan Africa. While this approach of working with the private sector was highly controversial at the time, it ended up delivering proof that delivering HIV/AIDS treatment for those who needed it most was possible. Since this work on the front lines of HIV/AIDS, our focus broadened to making healthcare financing and delivery more effective and more inclusive.
PharmAccess employs a multidisciplinary team of professionals in Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria and the Netherlands. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a committed and long-term funder of our activities.
Find out more about our history here.
Mission
PharmAccess is dedicated to improving access to healthcare in Africa through technology and mobile innovations. PharmAccess mobilizes public and private resources for the benefit of doctors and patients through health insurance, loans to doctors, clinical standards and quality improvements, private investments and operational research.
A mobile health contract for everyone in Africa.
The five objectives of the PharmAccess group are…
1. Develop private pre-payment mechanisms and risk pooling structures, and mobilize resources for organized demand
2. Strengthen, benchmark, and certify clinical and business performance of healthcare service suppliers
3. Improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency to better match demand and supply of healthcare transactions
4. Mobilize capital into the private health sector
5. Conduct research on the various implemented strategic interventions and advocate those that are successful
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