Inter Press ServiceRadhika Shah - Author - Inter Press Service

Kenya Leapfrogging on 4 SDGS- Building Bridges Between Silicon Savannah and Silicon Valley

Temina Madon and Radhika Shah — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 09:34:56 +0000

The Government of Kenya and the UN Kenya team with their hosts on the roof of the LinkedIn HQ in San Francisco on 21 Jan 2019. Credit: UN

By Dr. Temina Madon and Radhika Shah
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 29 2020 (IPS)

One year ago, the UN began implementing reforms meant to make it more effective in delivering on sustainable development. Now, with the start of 2020, the global body has declared this as the “decade of action” to turn the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into a living reality for all humanity. But what does this look like, on the ground?

In countries like Kenya, there is widespread belief that the traditional approaches to economic growth are not enough to achieve the SDGs. Fortunately there are signs that the UN is embracing the disruptive innovation that is needed, across the development landscape, to transform the lives of people around the world. At the African Diaspora Investment Symposium held this month in Silicon Valley, USA we saw the UN, government, and private sector leaders engaged in insightful dialogue on how businesses can partner with the public sector to contribute to Africa’s development.

A team led by ICT Minister Joe Mucheru from the Government of Kenya and Siddharth Chatterjee, the UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya, spoke at the symposium. The team also met with several Silicon Valley companies and technology startups, and participated in round tables with local thought leaders at academic institutions like Stanford University and UC Berkeley.

Our interaction with government representatives and the UN team in Kenya has demonstrated an encouraging shift, especially in mobilising public-private partnerships that can transform the economy, rather than simply facilitating transactions.

In Kenya there is a noticeable, deliberate push for public-private partnerships around the SDGs as well as national priorities like the “Big Four” Development Agenda. Working hand-in-glove with the Government, the UN Country Team is branding and presenting Kenya’s national goals as an important and transparent opportunity for the business sector. They are a way to direct private investment toward activities that offer both corporate returns and sustainable development wins.

The trend towards leveraging private sector resources for Kenya’s national priorities, including catalyzing unique win-win partnerships with companies from across the world, is a welcome trajectory. In an era of declining public sector contributions to the global body, UN experts have been pushing for innovation to bridge the gap in investments needed to achieve the SDGs. This requires a mind-set shift: a focus on enabling companies to incorporate the development goals into their core business practices and strategies. And the UN’s leadership is critical in helping to ensure that corporate interests are focused where they will reduce inequality and generate positive social returns.

A demonstration of this new direction is the recent collaboration agreement between the Government of Kenya, the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the United Nations. This initiative will build technology-intensive partnerships that bring new financing, data, and innovations into Kenya’s Big Four Agenda. The collaboration will be implemented through Kenya’s SDG Accelerator Lab — a Government-UN platform for developing, testing, and scaling novel approaches to development.

We are excited about the potential of this initiative to deliver for the citizens of Kenya. For instance, the majority of maternal and newborn deaths are preventable with relatively simple and inexpensive tools, but too often the right life-saving interventions are unavailable where and when they are most needed. Part of the solution may lie in new technologies, like data analytics systems that integrate routine health administrative data with satellite imagery and machine learning.

These systems can, for example, help community health workers to prioritize and triage care and resources to those most at risk. Through partnerships with the companies that build these technologies, Kenya can begin to realize the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution, bringing critical information and insights where they are urgently needed.

Credit must be given to the Kenya government for being at the forefront of technology adoption. Its collaboration with UN in Kenya, a partnership characterized by deep trust and calculated risk-taking, is providing a template for other developing countries seeking to tap technology for sustainable development.

Kenya already stands out as a global frontrunner in the sphere of technological innovation, through such products as the MPesa mobile money transfer service, which has transformed lives — especially for those Kenyans who have for years been kept out of conventional banking. Kenya is also home to profound social innovations, including the use of randomized controlled trials to understand the effectiveness of development programs and products (an innovation merited with the 2019 Nobel Prize in Economics).

Of course innovation is not a silver bullet, and achieving the SDGs will require careful thinking about how new technologies is financed, delivered, and regulated — especially if we are to advance the welfare of citizens who feel they are still stuck in neutral. However, if used in a thoughtful manner, technology holds incredible potential to transform governments, development partners, and businesses. Through platforms like the Kenya SDG Accelerator Lab, there are opportunities to harness its full and transformative potential, in ways that leave no one behind.

It is encouraging that the UN and Government are together stewarding the involvement of technology providers, and the broader private sector, in Kenya’s development agenda.

We concur with the observation of UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed that there is no time for an incremental approach, and success will rest “first and foremost on a shift in UN’s organizational culture and mind-sets at all levels”.

We see the need for a similar mind-set shift in Silicon Valley. By 2050, one in four people will live on the African continent. In some sense, the future lies in Africa; and the tech sector’s investment must begin to align with this reality.

Temina Madon @tmadon is an Advisor to the Kenya SDG Accelerator Lab and was founding Executive Director of CEGA at UC Berkeley. She is also a member of South Park Commons, a technology community in Silicon Valley.

Radhika Shah @radhikashahsv is an Advisor to the Kenya SDG Accelerator Lab and is Co-President, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs. She is a board member of CEGA at UC Berkeley.

The Government of Kenya and United Nations Partnership to Achieve Universal Health Care Inspires Many in Silicon Valley and the Stanford, U.C. Berkeley Communities

Radhika Shah — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 15:25:23 +0000

Paulina muthoni with her baby, Stephen attending post-natal and well-baby clinic at the Lodwar Referral hospital, Turkana county. With more mothers having access to pre/postnatal health care due to increased sensitization on the importance of seeking professional medical care, maternal/newborn mortality rates have considerably reduced in most of the areas considered high-risk. Credit: UN Kenya/Ngele Ali
By Radhika Shah
NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 9 2018 (IPS)
Recently, some of us from the Stanford University and U.C. Berkeley community had the privilege of hosting Siddharth Chatterjee, the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Kenya and his team at the Silicon Valley, where he spoke at the 2018 African Diaspora Investment Symposium. The Kenya team also met with academics, Directors of Centers and students as well as some of brilliant technology leaders in Silicon Valley at Facebook and Google.

From the presentations, we learned how the United Nations Country Team in Kenya was supporting the Government of Kenya on Universal Health Care and the delivery of Kenya’s Vision 2030 through multi-sectoral partnerships; bringing to bear the power of cutting edge technology innovation. This was indeed an opportune gathering to brainstorm on ways of partnering towards this vision. We also learnt that the Kenyan leadership recently announced the Big 4 Action Plan and a commitment to dedicating energy, time and resource over the next 5 years to 1). Food Security 2). Affordable Housing 3). Manufacturing 4). Affordable HealthCare for all.

As someone who grew up in the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram in India, and a strong believer in the Gandhian philosophy of Respecting and standing for the Dignity of All, I am double excited by how that philosophy is enshrined within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda of leaving no one behind. It was therefore uplifting and inspiring to hear how Kenya is invested in leapfrogging access to health care for all her citizens, in view of the central role of health in national development.

The United Nations and Government of Kenya partnership is spot on: without cultivating synergies and pooling strengths, attempts at delivering the SDGs – which now are the global normative framework for solving monumental social and environmental problems – will be greatly compromised. Transformative multi-sectoral collaborations are the true spirit of SDG Goal No. 17 on partnerships.

I learned that Kenya has demonstrated global leadership in the adoption and mainstreaming of the SDGs including co-chairing the Open Working group. Additionally, the agenda to drive SDG3 on health is a substantive priority for Kenya. As a result, considerable steps have been taken to bring more hands-on deck, to unlock alternative means for financing the Countries development agenda, and include genuine innovative and homegrown approaches as well as adaptation of innovative approaches from various parts of the world.

Especially motivating is the bold vision for Kenya to leverage technology innovation as it seeks to achieve Universal Health Care. A critical objective of the Big 4 agenda as outlined by Kenya’s President, Mr. Uhuru Kenyatta.

Towards this, the African Diaspora Investment Symposium is already creating pathways; Professor Banny Banerjee of ChangeLabs at Stanford University is now exploring with the United Nations Kenya office the potential of launching an SDG Innovation Lab in Kenya, while the Stanford School of Medicine has expressed keenness in considering partnerships to advance the vision of achieving UCH in Kenya.

Having engaged in the dialogue, I look forward to seeing strong collaborations emerge in the future, with all partners working closely with the Kenyan Government and UN Kenya office to advance Universal Health Care. This will truly exemplify the spirit of “One-UN” joint UN Development Assistance Framework and SDG Partnership Platform.

Attending The Africa Diaspora Investment Symposium. Left to Right: Ashit Patel-SalesForce, Siddharth Chatterjee-UN Resident Coordinator to Kenya, Heather Grady-Vice President, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Radhika Shah- Co-President, Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs, and Karolina Mzyk, The Sustainable Development Goals Philanthropy Platform

Another lesson from the presentation was on leadership by the Kenyan Government and support of the UN with private sector, philanthropy and civil society partners to co-create transformative solutions to locally-identified challenges. This initiative seeks to catalyze private capital to support these solutions where the investment case allows.

This approach will prepare Kenya for alternate SDG funding as Overseas Development Aid shrinks and financing transactions for the long term emerge within the private sector as the country climbs up the middle-income ladder.

It is clear “Business Unusual will Drive Africa’s Quest to achieve Health Care for All” The power of partnerships, and harnessing technology and innovation might be a game-changer for Kenya and Africa in achieving Universal Health Care for all and achieving the vision of leaving on one behind.

This spirit of collaboration and visionary leadership demonstrated by the UN system in Kenya is what is required in the world today if we are to achieve the SDGs. Multi-sectoral collaboration and leveraging the power of technology innovation could help advance one of the most fundamental of human rights – access to basic primary health for all Kenyans and Africa at large.

Perhaps Kenya may be leading the way and could inspire the rest of Africa to focus on UHC as the most basic of human right for all citizens. This is indeed a moment for us all to work hand in hand to reach the furthest behind first and leave no one behind.

Radhika Shah, is Co-President Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs, Silicon Valley, USA

Business Unusual will Drive Africa’s Quest to achieve Health Care for All

Siddharth Chatterjee and Radhika Shah — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 08:33:11 +0000

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) pledged his full support for the delivery of universal healthcare within the next five years, one of the pillars of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Action plan. Credit: State House
By Siddharth Chatterjee and Radhika Shah
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 5 2018 (IPS)
Africa’s quest for health continues to be held back by a combination of factors such as natural disasters and pandemics, prevailing high rates of communicable and rising incidence of non-communicable diseases, sedentary lifestyles, road accidents and greater population mobility.

With the region accounting for approximately a quarter of the world’s disease burden and just 3 percent of its doctors, it is difficult to be optimistic about the future.

Every year for example one million people in Kenya, fall into poverty and stay poor due to a catastrophic health shock. Nearly 11 million Africans fall into poverty due to high out-of-pocket payments for healthcare, even as the continent is expected to provide access to essential health services, medicines and vaccines for all its citizens by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals agreed on globally.

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has prioritised universal health coverage (UHC) for all in his second term.

It is obvious that to achieve UHC, more resources will not only have to be mobilized for the health sector, new partnerships must also be forged, such as the one between United Nations, Government of Kenya and technology company Philips, to improve access to health care in hard to reach communities. New models of blended financing and impact investing need to take up the slack to address the scarce resources, which must also be used more efficiently and effectively.

The Better Business Better World Africa Report shows how challenges in the delivery of health care can be turned around into large business opportunities with a potential value of US$259 billion and could create over 16 million jobs in Africa by 2030.

More 21st century partnerships that connect the dots between innovators, health systems and patients are critical to the attainment of Universal Health Coverage by 2030. Credit: UNDP

Innovation Tech could be a game-changer in diagnostics, health information, supply chain management, health financing, and even remote tele-surgery performed by robotic arms.

Few frontiers provide greater potential for African countries to achieve UHC than information technology. “Just as mobile payments have transformed Kenyan markets, I think innovations in the health sector— from machine learning algorithms that help diagnose disorders, to digitized prescriptions that make drugs more affordable— could have a transformative impact on health, quality of life, and the efficiency of our investments in healthcare,” says Dr. Temina Madon Executive Director for the Center for Effective Global Action at U.C. Berkeley.

A crucial enabling factor is the continent’s impressive mobile penetration profile. Africa is getting more and more interconnected. With prices falling, smartphone penetration more than doubled between 2014 and 2016. By 2020, smartphone adoption on the continent is expected to surpass 50 percent, meaning that technology will be well placed to open up health systems to the poorest and most vulnerable people.

Increasing penetration and scaling of private, public-private and community insurance schemes could transform access to better healthcare, especially if the right insurance mechanisms, including forms of micro-insurance, are put in place. Digital solutions such as Kenya’s M-Tiba could play an important role in the realization of UHC.

Google researchers have trained image recognition algorithms to auto-detect signs of diabetes related eye disease by analysing retinas which could help prevent blindness.

Stanford University innovators are creating a cell phone based mosquito monitoring platform for anyone to submit a mosquito buzz – producing the most detailed global map of mosquito distribution that can help prevent mosquito borne diseases.

Drones, as those of Zipline, are revolutionizing supply chain management systems in Rwanda and Tanzania, drastically reducing the time of delivery of blood at the facility when patients are in need and at risk of dying.

With the ubiquity of smartphones and a shortage of specialist doctors, calling or texting a physician for a consultation and to obtain a prescription can be done in a flash, literally. With ICT prices dropping, telemedicine will be more than a niche application of cutting-edge tech; it could be the future norm of medicine.

Dashboard systems will help policy makers and implementing agencies monitor progress of programmes and identify areas in need of improvement. Likewise, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can provide geographically-referenced data to help in identifying relationships, patterns and trends in diseases.

Taken together, these innovations will ensure that each building block and therewith entire health systems can be strengthened and that resources mobilised in the health sector are used more efficiently and effectively.

Fortunately, these innovations are already in existence, albeit many of them at pilot-level implementation stages. Countries need to identify tools that are available in the market, especially those that are based on open source software that allow for adaptation, and take them to scale. The price of failing to take up such opportunities will be a slower march towards economic progress, as families continue to use up their life savings, sell assets, or borrow to meet the cost of health care.

A demographic dividend looms in Africa, and countries need to capitalize on the employment opportunities offered by the health sector while strengthening their health systems. A young army of community health workers who are tech savvy and can reach the last mile, could offset the chronic shortage of doctors and nurses through task-shifting.

One of the steps in the right direction is Kenya’s move to eliminate payments for primary and maternal health services in public facilities. Credit: Clinton Foundation

UNDP’s Administrator Mr. Achim Steiner has underscored the importance of multi-sectoral partnerships as a vehicle to attain UHC. Such partnerships he says, “are key in connecting players nationally and globally, across sectors and silos to drive progress on UHC”.

This is exactly what innovative Platforms such as the SDG partnership Platform in Kenya are beginning to catalyse – harnessing global tech innovations and intellectual firepower to serve the continent’s populations with public-private investments to achieve Universal Health Care for basic human dignity and as a springboard for greater economic growth.

And Kenya can lead the way in achieving Universal Health Coverage.

Excerpt:
Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator, Kenya. Radhika Shah, is Co-President Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs