PharmAccess at the European Development Days 2015

Europe’s leading forum on global development and cooperation, the European Development Days (EDD15) took place in Brussels on 3-4 June, bringing together 5,000 participants to find practical solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems.

The 2015 edition of European Development Days (EDD15) comes at a critical juncture for the future of the planet, with key decisions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be taken at the Financing for Development Conference in July and the United Nations General Assembly in September. In the European Year of Development, PharmAccess was selected as one of the global development organizations to take part in this international event.

PharmAccess presented our approach to development at a stand as well as during a session called “Financing models for access to quality healthcare: lessons learned from Africa”. The speakers, Adekunle Adeyemi from Crystal Hospital in Lagos, Monique Dolfing-Vogelenzang from Medical Credit Fund, Ties Kroezen from Philips and Aaltje de Roos from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, each talked about their experiences in finding new ways to finance healthcare and the involvement of the private sector.

During the conference, the EU Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica emphasized the importance of the private sector’s involvement, calling it crucial to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as scarce public resources are insufficient to finance all the investments needed in developing countries.

Among the speakers at the European Development Days were Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission and Martin Schultz, President of the European Commission. Organizations that also organized a session included WHO, The Global Fund, UN Women, UNDP, UNAIDS, KPMG, Philips and Amref Health Africa.

To listen to our session, click here.
To listen to other EDD15 sessions, click here.