HFI at UNGA77 2022 & Summer Newsletter InsightsRead more about HFI and UNGA77 2022, other upcoming events, excess sugar consumption and NCDs, partnerships, and available roles at HFI.
The Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU) is hosting a side event during UNGA week, entitled UNGA: LIFE SCIENCES: Sustainable, Diversified Financing for Health – Investing for Impact. HFI CEO Dr. Andrea Feigl will be speaking alongside other experts in health and financing to discuss a continuum of financing models that can help close the gap in countries reaching their health goals. The discussion will cover the role of metrics and data systems to measure impact of investments, public private partnerships (PPPs) that have created more sustainable health systems, and opportunities for collaboration amongst stakeholders. The speakers will be:
Dr. Muhammad Ali Pate, Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Olufunke Fasawe, Senior Director, Primary Health Care, Clinton Health Access Initiative
Dr. Andrea Feigl, Founder and CEO, Health Finance Institute
Dr. Nicole Lurie, Executive Director for Preparedness and Response, CEPI
Supporting the Vaccine Supply Chain in Kenya
This month HFI partnered with IPE Global on United States Agency for an International Development (USAID) project to understand the challenges faced in the vaccine supply chain in Africa and assess opportunities for a financially viable and operationally practical blended finance facility. As part of the overall effort, the HFI team visited Nairobi to gather evidence and data from different stakeholders to develop a comprehensive roadmap for using blended finance instruments to support the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain in Kenya.
Yun Fu and Zia Shakir of HFI had the privilege to conduct in-person meetings with key stakeholders from several organizations such as UNICEF, CHAI, Kenya Health Federation (KHF), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Institute of Public Finance (IPF), Convergence, and others, to understand key barriers and challenges with COVID-19 vaccine supply chain. Additionally, the team explored opportunities for public and private partnerships and investments to address the overall healthcare supply chain in Kenya.
New NCD Alliance Brief Released
The NCD Alliance has released a brief entitled “Mobilising private investments to address the NCD funding gap”. Building on the earlier Invest to Protect Brief, which HFI contributed to, this new brief aims to unpack solutions to accelerate private investments as one of multiple strategies for increasing funding for NCDs.
Key questions covered in this brief include:
How poorly funded are NCDs?
How much will governments need to invest?
How can the private sector play a role in NCD investment?
HFI and Health Wildcatters Are Supporting Aptus.Life
HFI and Health Wildcatters are partnering to support Aptus.Life, a healthcare startup that was mutually selected by both organizations.
Aptus.Life aims to improve health outcomes via the Aptus.Life platform of enhanced Remote Patient Monitoring and Chronic Care. The organization is incentivizing providers and persons with chronic disease to manage their conditions, driving the double bottom line of both better health and better economic outcomes.
We are grateful to be part of this collaboration!
The Intersection of Excess Sugar Consumption & Non-communicable Diseases
High sugar consumption increases the risk of a wide range of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, and cancer. Global sugar consumption has continued to climb year over year, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and this rise in sugar consumption has gone hand in hand with a rise in NCD prevalence in these countries. Despite this concerning increase in sugar consumption and the related detrimental health outcomes, there are a multitude of policy interventions available to decision makers that have been shown to be effective in reducing sugar intake to healthier levels.
We are excited to welcome three new team members to the HFI team:
Amruta Bhir joins us as an Innovative Finance Intern. She recently completed her Master’s In Public Health with a concentration in Global Health, Health Economics and Health Policy from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She has gained substantial experience working as a researcher in the fields that are at an intersection of global health policy and health systems strengthening. At HFI, she brings her passion and interest through her experience to the innovative finance team where she provides support to its mission-fighting NCDs through blended finance. Amruta is originally from India and earned her B.Sc. from Delhi University.
Malika Sugathapala joins us as an Innovative Finance Intern. Malika is a Master of Development Engineering Student with a concentration in Healthcare Transformations at the University of California Berkeley. Having a background in Data Science and Economics he has undertaken the implementation and scaling of impact driven projects. His work experience ranges from improving efficiency of loan allocations for Small/Medium Enterprises, implementing impact evaluations on healthcare curriculums within rural communities, while also working alongside development agencies to improve access to affordable energy and sanitation sources for health clinics.
Zia Shakir joins us as a Senior Global Health Consultant. Zia is an avid global health advocate, reformer, and strategic thinker with extensive experience in strategy and management consulting, change, and technology. Over the course of his career, he has worked with global organizations and managed several transformational initiatives. His focus in global health is on health systems reforms, health finance, health economics, and real-world evidence within LMICs, G20 nations, and humanitarian settings. Zia holds an MS in Management from the University of Texas – Dallas, an MBA from Duke University – Fuqua School of Business, and an MPH from Yale University – Yale School of Public Health.
New Opening at HFI: Health Economics Lead
This week, we began seeking candidates for a new senior position: Health Economics Lead. Please share with your networks!
This role will lead client-facing health economics projects and will be a key contributor to HFI’s work.
We are also continuing to recruit for a Senior Global Health Finance Associate and Senior Health Economics Advisor. All of these roles can be found on the Careers page of our website.
