Meet the group

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:

Visit website
Visit website
Visit website
Visit website
Country Offices

 Country Offices

 

Ghana
Kenya
Nigeria
Tanzania
Contact
  • Who we are
  • Our approach
  • News & Publications

PharmAccess Foundation
AHTC, Tower 4C
Paasheuvelweg 25
1105 BP Amsterdam
The Netherlands

T: +31 (0)20 2103920
E: info@pharmaccess.org

  • Who we are
  • Our approach
  • News & Publications
Newsroom

PharmAccess and AIGHD present at University of Amsterdam's opening ceremony

Progress through Partnership: the UvA and Africa

  • Sep 11, 2014
Suggested reads
  • Mar 15, 2017
    New partnership i-PUSH introduces mobile innovations to revolutionize healthcare in Kenya
  • Apr 07, 2016
    Largest ever study reveals that 640 million of the global population is obese
  • Mar 09, 2016
    Leading HIV Researcher Peter Reiss to Chair 22nd International AIDS Conference

Monday, 1 September marked the opening of the new academic year for many Dutch universities, including the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Dr. Louise Gunning-Schepers, President of the UvA Executive Board, started with a remembrance of those lost in the MH17 disaster, including an UvA student, an UvA alumnus and our colleagues Joep Lange and Jacqueline van Tongeren. In light of this year’s African theme, four colleagues from PharmAccess and the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD) were invited to share their Africa-related work.

The University of Amsterdam collaborates with a variety of partners with the aim of linking the research and education sectors all over the world. This year they zoomed into their activities and partnerships in Africa. To showcase some of these long-lasting collaborations and UvA’s dense network our four speakers were invited to the stage to present their projects. As the first speaker, Zlata Tanovic introduced AIGHD and focused on the theme: ‘progress through partnership: the UvA and Africa’ which illustrated what working as a researcher entails. She concludes by saying that ‘I believe that academic collaboration between developed countries and Africa is an important way to strengthen local academic institutions, and helps to build a flourishing academic environment in Africa.’

Marleen Hendriks continued on this note, showcasing her research on cardiovascular disease prevention in a health insurance program in rural Nigeria and the impact of the results. During her research she collaborated with local academic institutions which resulted in interesting outcomes. ‘We showed that quality of care for high blood pressure in one of the insurance clinics was comparable to quality of care in high income countries. And access to this care reduced blood pressure in patients. This is a very important outcome because if we can bring down blood pressure, we can greatly reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks. This will save lives and prevent families from falling into poverty due to illness.’

Showcasing a new perspective, the third speaker Steven van de Vijver interestingly showed that his research on cardiovascular disease can actually trigger reverse innovation, meaning that his four-step model ‘from awareness to compliance’ developed in and for Kenya can be applied in Amsterdam to cover an area not addressed by the traditional Dutch public health system. ‘After exactly hundred years since Albert Schweitzer came to Africa to offer medical assistance, African solutions are coming our way to treat our Western lifestyle diseases’ explains Steven.

African solutions can also be a source of innovation, and as the fourth speaker Kees van Lede explains, calling them ‘leapfrogging opportunities.’ His project with MPESA and SafariCom shows how a mobile money payment model, which is extremely successful in Kenya, goes beyond what the western society is implementing today. He showed the audience that we have a lot to learn from this phenomenon, and rounds off the opening ceremony by concluding that Africa is a continent of innovation and great potential.

In order to share stories of researchers like Zlata, Steven, Marleen and Kees, the UvA published a book: ‘Progress through Partnerships: the UvA and Afrika.’ This book is dedicated to the memory of Joep and Jacqueline. To read it please click here

Share
Tags: AIGHD Amsterdam Jacqueline van joep lange PharmAccess Research
Quickly go to
  • Home
  • Management & Board
  • Our partners
  • Reporting
  • Vacancies
  • Contact
  • Publications
Follow us
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • Facebook
  • Home
  • Management & Board
  • Our partners
  • Reporting
  • Vacancies
  • Contact
  • Publications
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Ghana
  • Tanzania
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
  • PharmAccess@Medium
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy statement
  • © 2022 PharmAccess Group. All rights reserved.
Our COVID-19 response
To serve you better and more personal we make use of cookies.

Accept
Read more
Change Settings
Cookie Box Settings privacy settings
Cookie Box Settings privacy settings

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow. You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function. Learn more about the cookies we use via our privacy statement.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

  • Block all
  • Essential
  • Functionality
  • Analytics

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settingsl Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sites
  • Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settingsl Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sitesl Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
Save & Close