Roelinde Bakker

PharmAccess

PharmAccess is an international NGO that believes in doing healthcare better. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa, we work to improve healthcare markets so they deliver for all so people can access better care, live healthier lives, and reach their full potential. With headquarters in Amsterdam and most of its staff based in four country offices across Africa, PharmAccess is an international NGO with a history of reimagining what is possible. We challenge the notion that exclusion from healthcare is an inevitable consequence of living in poorer countries and identify the opportunities and partners – both private and public, needed to bring about transformation. This means mobilizing private and public resources, measuring and improving quality of services, and reaching even the most excluded people with financing options to pay for care. This approach was instilled by our founder Dr Joep Lange, a world leading aids researcher who went against the status quo in 2001 when he proved that working with the private sector could play a critical role in delivering life-saving antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS treatment in Africa. PharmAccess has since evolved to embrace other opportunities for inclusive healthcare, with a particular focus on what the digital revolution can deliver. PharmAccess aims to be an innovator and catalyst for practical changes that can be scaled up. Initiatives such as SafeCare equip healthcare providers with clinical standards for quality improvement that investors and patients can trust. The Medical Credit Fund drives more money into the system - it offers loans to clinics to stimulate growth and encourage new ways of financing healthcare. We use mobile health platforms to develop a new model to make healthcare work for everyone. PharmAccess believes that better functioning healthcare markets are key to advancing a number of the Sustainable Development Goal's, in particular the targets relating to the realization of Universal Health Coverage.