Harnessing the potential of Africa’s youth for better healthcare and innovation.
Speech presented at the Africa Investment Summit on Health
I am honoured to be speaking at this event and I am grateful for the opportunity. This conference is an important early step in the journey to securing self sufficiency and independence of the African healthcare sector as regards local production and supply of medical equipment, essential medications and other healthcare products. It is an ambitious goal, but it is worth the pursuit. However, if we decide as a continent to pursue this ambitious goal, then we cannot do things the old way. We must radically redefine and revamp our process of policy making and planning to fit into the reality of the goals that we have decided on.
Today I am here to talk about the necessity of shifting the conversation from young people being seen as leaders of tomorrow and merely heirs of the existing structures, to one where we see young people as collaborators and co-owners in the present, and important stakeholders who are crucial to the growth and sustainable development of our healthcare sector on the continent which I believe is our shared objective here today.
It is a well known fact that young people make up 70% of the population on the continent- meaning that Africa’s majority is young. Africa is young. A young continent means that we need young solutions. We need solutions that are created by the people who would mostly be using them anyway. I have been asked to talk about how to harness the potential of Africa’s youth for better healthcare and innovation. This is a broad, complex discussion. However, I have decided to touch on three major points which I believe form an important foundation for our conversations today: collaboration, education and digitization.
Collaboration: It is no news that on the continent, young people are largely missing from the big and most important tables, even when they have the required skill, or experience to do so. How many policymakers involve young healthcare workers in their situation analysis and program planning? These are the young people who form the bulk of the healthcare workforce, and who contribute immensely to healthcare service delivery- the young doctors, nurses, scientists, researchers. We work on the frontlines and experience the healthcare system at the most basic level. We can tell you what will work and what will not work. We can tell you what patients need. We can tell you what will make our jobs easier to execute. We are in the best position to give you information on the possible challenges that such and such programs would face. It is therefore crucial for you, our leaders, to partner with young people who live in the reality of these challenges, and have them come to the drawing board to decide the next steps. Oftentimes young people are included only at the end- many times to “publicize what has been done” or bring a “youthful feel” to an already designed and implemented campaign. Where were those young people during the ideation and conception phase? In our process of radically redefining how we do things, it is expedient that this important and innovative demographic are part of the discussion and planning even from the very first step.
Education- The importance of investing in health education and training for young healthcare workers is a major area of priority. It is no news that Africa is bleeding it’s young people, especially its young healthcare workers. Our best minds are being lost, when they are so desperately needed because we are not doing enough to retain and keep them here. There can be no investment in African healthcare without active strengthening of the healthcare workers in Africa through strong educational systems and institutions of learning, clinical attachments, specialty training and most importantly actively training and supporting young researchers.
Digitization: Finally, innovation and technology. Young people have been massively disrupting sectors through the use of technology, especially in the areas of finance and agriculture. We have innovatively provided unique solutions to problems on the continent using technology especially in these two sectors. It is important therefore, that we actively support this innovation in the healthcare sector. There are many promising examples of this such as Lifebank founded by a young Nigerian woman that tracks and monitors supply of medical deliveries such as blood products and oxygen to patients in need and mScan: A Mobile Ultrasound Scanner which can be used in low cost areas developed by a young Ugandan man. This tells us something, we are ripe and ready for a digital revolution in African healthcare, and there is no shortage of ideas and innovation. What is missing is funding, investment and support, and that is where more attention is urgently needed.
In summary, young people in Africa are not the future. We are the present. COVID19 made it more evident that as Africans we need to radically revamp our existing structures and to do this, it is important that we tap into the vast potential our vibrant youthful population possesses. This will be possible with active collaboration with young people that is intentional, devoid of tokenism and implemented from the very initial ideation phase. It will also be possible with better and improved investment in education, training and retaining our healthcare workers, as well as investment into digital reforms and solutions for healthcare in Africa.
I will leave with this quote by Picasso: There is only one way to look at things, until someone shows us how to look at them with different eyes.
Thank you and good day.
