FROM March 26th, 2019
I thank the Government of Cabo Verde and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa as they jointly host the 2nd World Health Forum this week. With the theme ‘Achieving Universal Health Coverage and Health Security in Africa: The Africa we want to see’, the 2nd Health Forum builds upon the 1st WHO Africa Health Forum hosted in Kigali, Rwanda in June 2017. The 1st Africa Health Forum had the theme ‘Putting People First: The Road to Universal Health Coverage in Africa’. As the second iteration of the Forum commences, the outcomes of the objectives set out in 2017 are a sign of progress and Africa’s commitment to attain the highest possible level of health for its people as articulated in the WHO Constitution, the African Union Health Strategy 2016 – 2030 and Agenda 2063, and the Transformation Agenda of the WHO African Region.
In this first year since I accepted my appointment as a Special Advisor within the WHO Africa Regional Office’s Independent Advisory Group, I have supported the continued progress of the WHO Africa Regional Office in providing improved access to quality care across the continent. At the 3rd meeting of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) in Johannesburg, South Africa in March 2018, we focused on repositioning the work of the WHO in Africa in the context of the WHO’s 13th General Programme of Work (GPW13) and the global WHO Transformation Plan. In particular, I welcomed the introduction of WHO AFRO’s focused curriculum for the professional qualification education of Midwives and Nurses in Africa.
When Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus became the first African Director-General of the WHO in 2017, I welcomed his commitment to Universal Health Coverage as representing bold leadership and I looked forward to working closely with him and Dr. Moeti as Regional Director of the WHO Africa Regional Office. On the 6th of March 2019, Dr. Tedros announced the most wide-ranging reforms in the history of the WHO to modernize and strengthen the institution; I was pleased at this clarion affirmation of a gender focus in the internal reforms and the missions of the WHO. That today over 60% of the senior positions at the WHO are held by women is a desirable achievement towards speaking up for women and girls’ right to health.
The African continent currently faces a number of complex health challenges. As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) approached 1000 cases amid increased violence last week, I commend the reaffirmation by the WHO of its commitment both to ending the outbreak and working with the government and communities to build resilient health systems. At this crucial time for improved healthcare outcomes across the African continent and the effective management of containing disease outbreaks, I am both inspired and humbled by the frontline health workers and 700 WHO staff in DRC who are working hard with partners to listen to the affected communities and address their concerns.
As we observed World Tuberculosis Day earlier this week on Sunday, 24th of March, the efforts of the WHO announced by Dr. Tedros through the FIND. TREAT. ALL joint initiative in partnership with the Stop TB Partnership and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria highlights the importance of working in partnership to collaborate on enabling access to the care for the millions who miss out on quality TB care each year. As Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, I have experienced how through partnerships we can achieve so much more than what we can achieve alone. Strong partnerships and collaboration have always led to longer term results. Indeed, we go farther, together. I agree with the WHO that it is only by setting standards to strengthen and accelerate joint responses can the world meet the commitments set forth in the WHO End TB Strategy, Stop TB Global Plan to End TB and Sustainable Development Goals.
Today, as the Global Health Community faces new crises spurred by natural disasters, the WHO has been demonstrably effective in the provision of timely resources and solutions. As efforts continue to ramp up the health response in the aftermath of Cyclone Idai, which struck and displaced thousands of people in Southern Africa across Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, I stand with the WHO and its leadership through its Africa Regional Office and Dr. Moeti in efforts to provide urgent assistance to the region.
On January 31, 2019, the Executive Board of the World Health Organization endorsed a call for 2020 to be officially recognized as the ‘Year of the Nurse and Midwife’. This announcement is a milestone on the path to giving nurses and midwives, alongside all frontline health workers, the necessary recognition, agency and resources they need to deliver the highest possible healthcare outcomes across the continuum of care. It gladdens my heart and the hearts of midwives and nurses across the world that next year will see the spotlight shine on them, and their historical forebear, Florence Nightingale.
Thank you once again for the invitation to join you this Forum – I wish you the very best in your discussions. Most importantly, I look forward to working further with the WHO and its Africa Regional Office towards Universal Health Coverage across the continent and creating the Africa We Want to See.
FROM March 20th, 2019
At a World Water Day event today in Abuja convened by WaterAid and the Foundation for Partnership Initiatives in the Niger Delta (PIND), Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa and Global Goodwill Ambassador to the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), announced a major expansion of the existing work of her Foundation in the area of water, sanitation and hygiene.
Mrs Saraki launched her Foundation’s campaign to end open defecation in Nigeria in line with the priorities of the World Health Organization, to which Mrs Saraki serves as the Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group of the Africa Regional Office, and the World Bank, with which the Wellbeing Foundation has worked closely on water, sanitation and hygiene since last year.
At the World Water Day event Mrs Saraki commented:
“I commend the progress made by programmes such as the USAID four-year 60-million-dollar investment in Effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene activity (E-WASH) in six states in Nigeria and the work of DFID in Bauchi State.”
“Thank you to WaterAid Nigeria Country Director Dr Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye and PIND Deputy Executive Director Tunji Idowu for their work to improve water, sanitation and hygiene – often known as ‘WASH’ – indices in Nigeria and for their comments today.”
“I am delighted to announce today that the Wellbeing Foundation will extend its WASH campaign to include not only WASH in schools and hygiene in healthcare facilities, but also ‘a toilet for all’ to end open defecation in Nigeria.”
“Nigeria has the second highest rate of open defecation in the world. This increases the risk of the spread of infectious diarrhoeal disease such as cholera. In addition to campaigning for improved access to clean and safe toilet facilities, the Wellbeing Foundation will work to improve the general understanding of the dangers of open defecation.”
“At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, we launched a water, sanitation and hygiene campaign in May 2018, at the World Health Organization offices here in Abuja. We did so because of the overwhelming evidence coming back to us from our frontline healthcare programmes that we had to retrace our steps – that WASH indices in Nigeria were not only poor; but were worsening in many instances.”
“In September 2018 the WBFA partnered with Unilever Lifebuoy Nigeria and Sightsavers to improve hygiene practices to impact more than 2 million children over the following 12 months. The partnership works on programmes which promote hygiene messages and prevent disease, advancing critical hygiene interventions such as handwashing with soap, addressing the issue of child illnesses and mortality due to preventable diseases.”
“WASH indices are often, rightly, discussed as statistical values. That is of course crucial to any national plan, and the WBFA staunchly advocates for improved civil registration and vital statistics systems. We know that one out of three Nigerians does not have clean water close to home and two in three do not have a decent household toilet. This contributes to the deaths of nearly 60,000 children under five each year of diarrhoeal illnesses caused by dirty water, poor sanitation and poor hygiene. Poor WASH conditions kill more people annually in Nigeria than have died in conflict with Boko Haram. According to WaterAid, it also means a loss of 0.9% of our GDP, around $3.38 billion USD a year.”
“As Special Adviser to the WHO Africa Regional Office, I also strongly advocate for the WHO Sepsis Resolution to be adopted and implemented by all governments. In October 2018 the WHO introduced new and pioneering guidelines for WASH in conjunction with neglected tropical diseases. These must be acted upon as a matter of urgency.”
Representatives from the UK Department for International Development, the European Union, USAID, UNESCO, Unilever, Coca-Cola and several other stakeholders took part in the event to mark World Water Day.
FROM March 6th, 2019
Mrs Toyin Ojora Saraki today addressed the Africa Health Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, as part of a panel organised by PATH in collaboration with AMREF Health Africa.
Mrs Saraki joined Dr. Sarah Opendi, Uganda Minister for Health, Professor Joachim Osur, Director, Regional Programs and Field Offices, AMREF, and Angela Nguku of White Ribbon Alliance, Kenya, in a high-level session focused on ‘Social Accountability to Advance Universal Health Coverage.’
Having been named by Devex as a ‘Global Health for All Champion’ in 2018, Mrs Saraki – who is the Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa – outlined her vision of universal health coverage, stating:
“One of the key downfalls of outdated, top to bottom, external agency models of health – often coming from a ‘traditional aid’ perspective – is that citizens are viewed as passive beneficiaries. That modus operandi will not help us to achieve universal health coverage. The active participation of the communities that health systems are designed to serve is an absolute necessity, including in design and modification.”
“Trust is the currency of advocacy – but it will be eroded if the service delivery that citizens have been told they need and deserve is not available”
“A well-designed civil registration & vital statistics system is essential. Only with the collection and dissemination of accurate data can we ensure effective delivery, evaluation and monitoring of sustainable, effective public health strategies.”
“The Wellbeing Foundation Africa has as its founding centrifuge a core civil registration and vital statistics tool, the Personal Health Record, which empowers women to be the key agent in social accountability and community audit in ensuring health for all.”
“We must match the intelligence and knowledge of communities with global innovation. Too often national or global policy decisions simply do make it effectively to the frontline”
“We are all the duty bearers and decision-makers. We have to remove silos when it comes to community accountability.”
The Wellbeing Foundation Africa is the proud Nigerian partner to AMREF on the ground-breaking report ‘Cancer Ecosystem Assessment in West Africa: Health Systems Gaps to Prevent and Control Cancers in three countries: Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal.
FROM February 28th, 2019
Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, today addressed the inaugural Concordia Africa Initiative, founded by Nicholas Logothetis, with global leaders including Cherie Blair, H.E Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; H.E. Liu Xiaoming, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the United Kingdom, and Madame Monica Geingos, First Lady of the Republic of Namibia.
Mrs. Saraki challenged those convened at Concordia to approach a new paradigm for aid as co-investment as opposed to the donor-beneficiary narrative.
In her speech, Mrs Saraki called for overseas investors to work with African and community-led partners to achieve sustainable successes and impact:
“We must approach our challenges from a position of honesty and move away for the ‘aid narrative.’ Co-investment from communities is necessary for sustainable impact – if only from the perspective of human resources.”
“There are inherent strengths which make African-led philanthropy particularly effective. I identify these primarily as the fact that our work is community-led and therefore both more effective and sustainable; and the flexibility which comes from embedded networks leading to the ability to influence policy decisions at a national, regional and global level with data-driven advocacy.”
“We have the brainpower and excellence in Nigeria and throughout Africa to bring our health indices up to global standards. To build capacity we must in part look to strategic partnerships to help us deliver results to the frontline.”
“African-led foundations are able to work with our own communities – not by foisting an external model on them, but by working with them to identify key issues, build up their own champions, and allocate resources, where needed, efficiently and with the buy-in of those who will act as service providers and as service users.”
“We cannot accept lower expectations or the notion that aid is any form of the long-term solution. It is not: we should aim for a global standard in all that we do. It has been shown time and time again that we have the capability to achieve on a global level as a nation and as a region once we have the necessary tools, training, and infrastructure to do so. Addressing those gaps is part of our challenge in achieving excellence and I believe that partnerships on an equal footing – not aid – are one of the tools we can use to do so.”
The Concordia Africa Initiative is intended to provide a platform for cross-sector leaders to share strategies and priorities for African economic growth, to promote innovative cross-sector and public-private partnerships in Africa, and to build connections and identify opportunities to create lasting prosperity on a rapidly-changing and demographically-growing continent. The initiative will be shaped and driven by local stakeholders in order to build sustainable and scalable alliances among the government, private sector, and civil society.
FROM January 31st, 2019
In her keynote speech to ‘A Women Leaders’ Forum to Promote Peaceful Elections’ – jointly organised by UN Women, the African Union and the Embassy of Germany – Toyin Saraki called for an end to election violence ahead of the 2019 polls in Nigeria and urged all stakeholders to ensure that women are able to take full part in the democratic process.
Mrs Saraki, a pioneer member of the African Women’s Leadership Initiative, which was inaugurated at the United Nations in New York in 2016, used her speech to highlight the barriers faced by women and young people in Nigeria, stating:
“As women, I urge us to charge all candidates and stakeholders to uphold the sanctity of democratic culture and the rule of law as sacrosanct, notwithstanding the powers of executive fiat, in order to activate the nation’s progress and productivity as Nigeria decides to elect its next leaders, and always
“51% of Nigeria’s population is female, and the female gender is universally recognised as being the primary and premier gender to nurture and nourish generations, from the helpless newborn in families and communities, into responsible adults that thrive. Similarly, we must encourage the female gender to imbibe and impart the essence of exercising the constitutional civil liberty and human right of democratic suffrage, the right to vote in peace, safety and dignity, to all.”
“As a passionate advocate for the involvement of women and young people in the democratic process, I know that given the chance they can transform Nigeria and create a healthier country for us all. They must be given the opportunity to do so.”
Mrs Saraki, who is Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Inaugural Global Goodwill Ambassador of the International Confederation of Midwives and Special Adviser to the Independent Advisory Group of the World Health Organization office for Africa, also referenced key indices which she believes are “holding Nigerians back”:
“I know that Nigerians want to build a healthier and safer country. We have the talent and passion to do so, but many of my fellow citizens are held back by the realities of troubling development indices and a direction of travel which is a serious cause of concern.”
“The essential foundations of wellbeing are too often absent. Water, sanitation and hygiene standards are in a state of national emergency, whilst on our current path Nigeria will have overtaken India as the world capital for infant deaths by 2021. Meanwhile, our electricity supply is the second worst in the world – only Yemen has worse access. We must improve these conditions to build a bright future for the next generation.”
The forum was also addressed by the Deputy Head of Mission for Germany in Nigeria, Ms Regine Hess and UN Women Country Representative, Ms. Comfort Lamptey among others including representatives from the security sector and civil society. Mrs Saraki was represented by Mrs Amy Oyekunle, CEO of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa.
FROM January 24th, 2019
Toyin Saraki, Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, made a series of high-level interventions at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this week. Mrs Saraki urged the 65 world leaders and 3,000 participants to abandon ‘business as usual’ in recognition of the $33 billion gap in funding for reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health, and called for enhanced collaboration between sectors to bring sustainable results to the grassroots level, as participants at Davos met to discuss the theme ‘Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.’
At a World Economic Forum Session focused on sustainable models for development hosted by Merck for Mothers, Devex and the Global Financing Facility, with speakers from Philips Healthcare and Credit Suisse among others, Mrs Saraki commented:
“Where there are gaps in provision, unmet by the public sector, we need to consider new strategies for foreign direct investment and domestic resource mobilisation.”
“At the Wellbeing Foundation Africa we are proud to have had hugely successful partnerships with the private sector, achieving sustainable and scalable impact at the grassroots level.”
“For those who wish to achieve that impact it is crucial to find the right implementing partners – who not only understand the communities you wish to work with and for, but indeed partners who come from those communities.”
“My message to Davos is that we cannot accept a ‘business as usual approach’ and I welcome the intervention by Bill Gates this week. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has shown how
much can be achieved by smart investment – indeed, as pointed out by Bill, investing in global health organizations aimed at increasing access to vaccines creates a 20-to-1 return.”
Commending Dr. Mwele Malecela, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the WHO, for her leadership on NTDs and the associated key issues, such as improved water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) standards, Mrs Saraki also conducted an exploratory meeting with Ellen Agler, CEO of The END Fund. Nigeria has the largest NTD burden in Africa, with more than 128 million people requiring treatment for at least one NTD in 2016 and all five of the most common NTDs being present in the country: intestinal worms, river blindness, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis.
The e-health check tool is available for free at https://covid19.wbfafrica.org/ and users can access real-time updates on how to stay connected, safe, and healthy during the pandemic on Instagram and Twitter @Wellbeing_PPMD, and @WellbeingPPMD on Facebook.
