CAF-AFRICA
PPE Access for All: The Journey and the Future
ABOUT
To date, we have committed and delivered 66 million personal protective equipment (PPE) items for almost 500,000 community health workers in Africa. Throughout this journey, thirty partners joined forces to protect community health workers while also identifying systemic gaps and barriers that prevent community health workers from receiving necessary protection, supplies and equipment. Through this workshop, the CAF-Africa partners shared what we learned, what gaps remain, and explored solutions for the future to make sure CHWs are supported, protected, and supplied.
The Impact
In part one, our in-country partners discussed the impact of the donated PPE and community health workers’ ongoing need for PPE.
The Journey
In part two, members of CAF-Africa’s oversight committee shared and reviewed the Fund’s implications based on lessons learned and remaining needs.
The Future
In part three, our global, regional and country-level partners reflected on what needs to be done to resolve the ongoing PPE access challenges and advocacy needs for community health workers.
Thank you to the organizations and individuals who joined our rich discussion about the quantification, purchase and delivery of PPE to CHWs across Africa.
Dr. Madeleine Ballard
Executive Director | Community Health Impact Coalition
Dr. Madeleine Ballard is the Executive Director of the Community Health Impact Coalition, a field catalyst created by health practitioners in 40+ countries to make professionalized community health workers a norm worldwide. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She holds a PhD in evaluation science (EBSI) from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and was previously the founding Program Manager at Last Mile Health. She currently conducts research on the effects of interventions to improve the performance of CHWs and works with the Coalition to accelerate the adoption of high-impact community health systems design. Madeleine is also a member of CAF-Africa’s Oversight Committee.
Emily Bancroft
President | Village Reach
Emily Bancroft is a global leader in systems change, dedicated to transforming health care delivery. She sets the vision for how VillageReach works with governments to solve health care delivery challenges to ensure quality primary health care for the most under-reached. Emily is recognized for her expertise in supply chain, health workforce development and digital health technologies. With 165 staff members across sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and North America, she leads a high-performance leadership team focused on the development, scale and replication of innovative solutions. As a contributor to the Forbes Nonprofit Council Member, Emily writes on issues of equity, collaboration and leadership in the nonprofit sector. She is also a Clinical Instructor at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Emily also serves on CAF-Africa Oversight Committee.
Gabrielle Fitzgerald
Founder and CEO of Panorama and Co-Founder of Pandemic Action Network
Gabrielle Fitzgerald is the founder and CEO of Panorama, a platform for social change that works to accelerate solutions in areas including pandemic preparedness, gender parity, adolescent mental health, and other intractable issues affecting populations around the globe. Gabrielle believes in the power of collaborative partnerships, audacious thinking, and bold action to catalyze meaningful change. Gabrielle is a co-founder of the Pandemic Action Network and president of the board of United for Global Mental Health. She holds an M.A. from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a B.A. from American University.
Dr. Krishna Jafa
CEO | Precision Global Health
Dr. Krishna Jafa (she/ her/ hers), MBBS, MPH is the CEO of Precision Global Health, LLC, a US-based minority immigrant woman-owned public health and gender integration strategy and technical advisory firm. She is a physician, epidemiologist, market shaping and health supply chain expert with 25 years’ experience in the financing, design, management, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of health programs and research. Before setting up her firm, Krishna managed the primary health care supply chain, frontline health workers, ICT and data systems, behavioral interventions, and cervical cancer screening and treatment portfolios at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She applies strategic systems change thinking to leverage both supply- and demand-side public, commercial and nonprofit delivery channels and platforms to improve the coverage, quality and equity of healthcare, and has deep experience in testing, proving, scaling and sustaining innovative service delivery models (e.g., self-care and self-testing, telehealth, e-commerce). Krishna holds a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health and a medical degree from Rajasthan University, India.
Chidinma Ifepe
Managing Director, Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP)
Chidinma is a former VP at Jumia, the e-commerce unicorn in Africa where she lead the customer experience and customer operations strategy for the Nigerian market. She has also spent the last decade consulting and volunteering at tech-enabled businesses transforming the digital landscape in Africa. Chidinma is now an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Janngo, where she serves as the managing director of the Africa Medical Supplies Platform.
James Lipenga
CHW Supervisor | Malawi
David Lowrance, MD, MPH
Senior Advisor, Health Security, Technical Advice and Partnerships | The Global Fund
David has joined the Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health team where he provides technical support on epidemic preparedness and response in the context of health systems and HIV, TB, and malaria investments, including C19RM. David joined the Global Fund after several years at WHO spearheading HIV surveillance and strategic information global goods, with an emphasis on data use and digital health. With almost 20 years of public health experience, he has lived and worked in Saipan, the Navajo Nation, Myanmar, Rwanda, Namibia, Haiti and Tanzania, in the latter three countries serving as U.S. CDC country director. He obtained his MD and MPH from Tufts University, a diploma in tropical medicine from the London School, trained in internal medicine at the University of Colorado, and completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service Fellowship at CDC.
Andrew MacCalla
Vice President, Emergency Response and New Initiatives | Direct Relief
Andrew MacCalla is the Vice President of Emergency Response and New Initiatives at Direct Relief, the largest privately funded non-profit aid organization in California and the 7th largest in the country. Direct Relief’s mission to improve the health and lives of people affected by poverty or emergencies – without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay. They provide medical resources to people in over 100 countries and all 50 US States and territories. Andrew is also a member of CAF-Africa’s of Oversight Committee. Andrew is also a founding Board Member of World Telehealth Initiative, a non-profit which provides medical expertise to the world’s most vulnerable communities to build local capacity and deliver core health services, through a network of volunteer health care professionals supported with state-of-the-art technology.
Dr. Amutuhaire Maureen
National ICCM Coordinator, Malaria Control Program | Ministry of Health Uganda
Dr Amutuhaire Maureen; Senior Medical Officer and a Public Health specialist working at the Ministry of Health Uganda as the National Integrated Community case management of childhood illness (iCCM) lead Coordinator. She has vast experience in strengthening community systems, working with the VHTs within the Country
Tapiwa Mukwashi
Director of Supply Chain | VillageReach
Tapiwa Mukwashi is a global health supply chain expert with more than 15 years of private sector and international development experience across sub-Saharan Africa. He currently serves as Director Supply Chain at VillageReach. Previously, he served as Senior Manager and program lead for the Supply Chain for Community Health Workers (SC4CHW) program. Tapiwa has played a central role in guiding the organization’s supply chain programs including the Supply Chain for Community Health Workers (SC4CHW) program to strengthen the supply chains that provide health products to community health workers. He also has a vital role in conducting supply chain cost benchmarking, supporting integration of different health product supply chains in Mozambique, and supporting PPE procurement and delivery for CHWs through the COVID-19 Action Fund.
Mila Nepomnyashchiy
Director | Community Health Acceleration Partnership
Lyudmila Nepomnyashchiy is the Director, Community Health Acceleration Partnership (CHAP). Nepomnyashchiy leads global efforts for the Community Health Acceleration Partnership, hosted by the Office of the WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy. Mila is a health specialist with over fifteen years working and leading a variety of initiatives and projects across private and public sectors. Mila has worked in McKinsey and Company, IQVIA and more recently at the Clinton Health Access Initiative focusing on commodity access for vulnerable populations, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Mila has an MSc. in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Economics and Human Rights from Barnard College, Columbia University. Mila is also a member of CAF-Africa’s Oversight Committee.
Freddy Nkosi
Country Director, DRC | VillageReach
Freddy Nkosi is the Country Director for VillageReach in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He plays a critical role in managing the relationship between VillageReach, the government of DRC, non-governmental agencies (NGOs) and donor partners. He also provides leadership and oversight for all program strategies and implementations in the country. Freddy has over 15 years of working in the development sector in areas such as health, governance, economic development, education and human rights. In a previous role with African Monitor, Freddy worked in South Africa and coordinated large-scale programs in over 10 African countries. He is a nurse and has a Master of Business Administration (MBA).
Prashant Yadav
Senior Fellow | The Center for Global Development
Prashant Yadav is a globally recognized scholar in the area of healthcare supply chains. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development, Affiliate Professor at INSEAD and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of many peer-reviewed scientific publications and his work has been featured in prominent print and broadcast media. In addition to his roles in academia and think tank, Prashant serves on the boards of many companies and a venture fund. In his previous roles Prashant has worked as Strategy Leader-Supply Chain at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Vice President of Healthcare at the William Davidson Institute and Faculty at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan; Professor of Supply Chain Management at the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program. He has also provided expert testimony on medical supply chains on multiple occasions in prominent legislative bodies around the world, including the US Congress. Prashant trained as a Chemical Engineer and obtained his PhD in Management Science & Operations Research.