Focusing on Responsive Primary Health Care in 2023
As we plan for our next three-year strategy cycle at VillageReach, I find myself reflecting on where we have been as well as what is to come. Our work with government and partners has seen tremendous growth - since we launched our last strategy in 2019, our solutions have gone from reaching 35 million people to now reaching 70 million people. At the same time, it has become clear that scale is not always the best measure of progress. We know that, as a community, we have not done enough to address rising socioeconomic and health inequality - multiple crises, including the recent Cyclone Freddy, cholera outbreaks in Malawi and Mozambique and cases of wild polio in Africa, demonstrate the urgent need to transform how we deliver care to the most vulnerable communities.
We will continue scaling proven solutions critical to building responsive primary health care (PHC) systems while also using new methods of bringing insights from the most under-reached into how services are designed and delivered. VillageReach has helped to build more responsive PHC through Health Center by Phone, our Lab Sample Transport Program, and raising awareness that drones are a means to get medicines and health products to people. But now, an even deeper focus on the under-reached is critical to achieving our own goals and UHC goals more broadly.
That is why I am so excited to announce that Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi has joined us today as our new Vice President, Global Programs. Dr. Ndyanabangi is an incredible leader with a myriad of experience in government, NGOs, and with the UN in far too many countries to recite here. He iswell-known for his transformational leadership on Ebola in Sierra Leone, his commitment to the rights of women and girls, and his abiding passion for building strong PHC systems that deeply engage communities and improve healthcare access for all.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Bannet Ndyanabangi to VillageReach, and thank you for your continued commitment to ensuring that everyone, no matter where they live, has access to the health care they need to thrive.
In solidarity,
Emily Bancroft, President
