Philips and AMREF Announce Strategic Partnership to Improve Healthcare in Africa

  Royal Philips and the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) announced that they will work closely together in an innovative shared-value partnership model designed to bring about a structural improvement in the healthcare infrastructure and healthcare provision on the African continent. This long-term strategic partnership aims to support AMREF in achieving its social goals and will help Philips in its ambition to improve the lives of people in Africa, while at the same time realizing growth across the fast-evolving African healthcare market. AMREF and Royal Philips will connect their networks and bring to market new education and training programs designed specifically for healthcare professionals in Africa. In close cooperation with local stakeholders, both parties will strive to develop and implement large-scale projects to improve healthcare infrastructure and make healthcare more accessible to the local population. Both organizations, AMREF and Royal Philips, have been active in Africa for over 50 years. While AMREF is deeply rooted in rural areas and hospitals, Philips has been active as a leading company in the field of healthcare innovation, has extensive expertise in healthcare system revitalization projects, medical technology, healthcare services and the training of healthcare professionals. AMREF’s DG, Dr. Teguest Guerma expressed delight at this partnership, “This is a very unique partnership. Philips is part of AMREF’s heritage and we are happy to embark on the next step of working together in formulating programmes that will utilise innovation to combat the shortage of health professionals and adopting contemporary solutions that will enable Africans to get proper health services.” “To provide innovative solutions that can deal with the complexity of healthcare in Africa, Philips is taking a long-term approach aimed at close collaboration with local and international parties that have strong engagement in the issues. By teaming up with AMREF, we are convinced that we can work toward our goals of making a significant contribution to improving healthcare in Africa, expanding our activities for providing clinical and technical training to people, and growing Philips as an organization on the African continent,” said Roelof Assies, General Manager, Philips East Africa.