The Africa Healthcare Federation was proud to be a strategic partner for the 7th Africa Health Business Symposium. The event was held at the Trademark Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya and had both in-person participants as well as a virtual audience. The theme was “The Role of the Private Sector in Advancing Women’s Health in Africa.” 

Based on the conversations, discussions and presentations that took place within the symposium, we walked away with four primary insights: 

1. Women’s Health is Not Prioritized Enough

Even though we have come far in terms of gender equity, women are still often not considered when it comes to creating policy, researching medications, pricing services, ensuring access, and encouraging healthy behavior. Screenings for illness and disease that primarily affect women are often not yet readily available to the needed levels and/or covered by national health insurance. Sexual and reproductive health is not enough of a priority, as maternal mortality rates are still much too high in every corner of the world. Despite past growth and improvement, we still have a very long way to go. 

2. Preventive Care is the Way Forward

Dr. Anne Kihara said it best in the session on Reducing the Cancer Threat for Women when she expressed her desire for there to one day be no need for curative medicine because illnesses like cancer will one day be address preventively. Of course, this may never fully happen, but it is the direction we need to go. 

This requires policy change (ensuring preventive care visits/interventions are covered by national health insurance, for example), increased access to health facilities, as well as behavior change on the part of the patients themselves. 

3. Understanding the Problem is a Vital First Step 

One of the event sponsors, Hologic, is a med-tech device company specifically focused on women’s health. Along with Gallup, they have conducted a first-of-its-kind survey of women across the world, which has resulted in an impressive Global Women’s Health Index. They will continue doing this annually for the next several years and are making the information public so that all can benefit. 

As Tanja Brycker, Hologic’s VP for Strategic Development, expressed, we cannot address a problem if we do not understand what the problem is. This Global Women’s Health Index helps us do just that: understand what the challenges are when it comes to women accessing healthcare. We often think we know what women need when it comes to health interventions, but no one has bothered to speak to the women directly – until now. We need to know what problem we’re solving. We don’t have the luxury of making assumptions. 

4. Let’s Make This Topic Obsolete

We can only hope that one day a symposium focused on women’s health will no longer be needed. The ultimate goal of an event like this is to take one step closer to that reality. This may be something we will never fully realize, but that does not mean we shouldn’t do our best to try.