SafeCare selected as a finalist for OECD DAC Prize: Taking Development Innovation to Scale

We are proud to announce that SafeCare has been selected as a finalist for this year’s OECD DAC Prize for Taking Development Innovation to Scale! The nomination pertains to SafeCare’s activities in Kenya, where SafeCare, Medical Credit Fund and PharmAccess have built a strong public-private partnership with Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), public and private primary healthcare providers, and local banks such as K-REP Bank. These organizations are using the SafeCare methodology and working together to improve healthcare quality for the poor in Kenya.

The objective of the prize is to promote the scaling-up of innovations that address important development gaps. With this prize, the DAC wants to acknowledge development actors who take the step from supporting innovation to using it systematically and strategically to address development challenges and take it to scale. SafeCare has demonstrated its scalability by attracting more stakeholders and producing measurable results. For example, over 900 Kenyan healthcare facilities have joined the SafeCare program. Facilities in the program show an increase in patient visits of 30% over six months.

One of the innovative elements of SafeCare is that it is used to improve both medical and business quality of primary healthcare facilities by analyzing quality of care and incentivizing healthcare facilities to improve. The Medical Credit Fund supports private healthcare facilities to obtain capital to improve their businesses and quality of care and promotes making sound investment decisions through business training. Consequently, more primary healthcare clinics become eligible to participate in the NHIF program. Moreover, SafeCare avoids the traditional pass-or-fail approach enforced by regulators, so it is more achievable and sustainable within the resource limitations of Kenya. Most importantly, patients gain access to better quality healthcare.

Ultimately, the OECD DAC Prize for Taking Development Innovation to Scale aims to help scalable, innovative solutions to gain broader traction in the development community and encourage donors and other development stakeholders to increase their support. Last year, the Kwara State Health Insurance Program was named a finalist for this prize.

The Award Ceremony will take place at the OECD Headquarters in Paris on 9 March 2016.