Better Place International

Design, develop and manage sustainable, value based, patient-centric healthcare facilities

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Kenya’s healthcare system in urgent need of radical reforms, what is your opinion

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Real time data and better healthcare access can help reach the 2030 United Nations goals

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Helping poorer Kenyans pay for healthcare

Paying for healthcare in Kenya has got easier thanks to M-Tiba, a mobile "electronic health wallet".

Great way to save and protect your health once you have NHIF insurance.  Join the conversation and share your thought or experience.

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'Twice as many die' in Africa after surgery

Surgery is a "silent killer" because of a lack of medical staff for aftercare, researchers say.

There is a better way to deliver effective safe and sustainable healthcare in Sub Saharan Africa it is time to change the paradigm of surgical healthcare delivery.

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New directive signal investment I the next generation in Kenya and follows on the president promises after inauguration

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Some African countries are 'urbanizing before they industrialize' — and it could be devastating for future populations

Over the next 35 years, the United Nations predicts that 2.5 billion people will move into cities. Not every city is prepared to handle the influx.

Need for new hospitals as an essential part of infrastructure development for growing urban population in Africa, should change the major world development agencies approach and priority settings. 

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Drones transform healthcare in Africa

The new technologies could revolutionise healthcare for the poor.

Technologie is the solution for sustainable health care in SSA and should not be considered a barrier.

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India’s Bet on World Domination … in Health Care

The world's warehouse of cheap generic drugs is now setting up hospitals abroad - for profit and social good.

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Kenya is the first country in Africa to introduce a generic version of the current drug of choice for people living with HIV, officials said Wednesday. Kenya's government and the global health initiative Unitaid announced that the East African nation will make the generic version of...

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Africa’s presidents keep going abroad for medical treatment rather than fixing healthcare at home

In the last decade, six of the 12 African presidents who have died in office, passed away in hospitals outside their countries.

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The macroeconomic impact of surgical disease is substantial and inequitably distributed. When paired with the growing number of favourable cost-effectiveness analyses of surgical interventions in low-income and middle-income countries, our results suggest that building surgical capacity should be a global health priority.

During 2015–30, the value of lost output (VLO) approach projected that surgical conditions would result in losses of 1·25% of potential GDP, or $20·7 trillion (2010 US$, purchasing power parity) in the 128 countries with data available. When expressed as a proportion of potential GDP, annual GDP losses were greatest in low-income and middle-income countries, with up to a 2·5% loss in output by 2030. When total welfare losses are assessed (VLW), the present value of economic losses is estimated to be equivalent to 17% of 2010 GDP, or $14·5 trillion in the 175 countries assessed with this approach. Neoplasm and injury account for greater than 95% of total economic losses with each approach, but maternal, digestive, and neonatal disorders, which represent only 4% of losses in high-income countries with the VLW approach, contribute to 26% of losses in low-income countries. ( Lancet Glob Health 2015; 3 (S2): S21–27 )

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Press Release - Frost & Sullivan Healthcare CIO Survey: The Future of Healthcare IT in APAC

To deliver Better Healthcare in Sub Saharan Africa will require smart health IT solutions that leapfrog the current legacy systems. It requires all our innovation in Cloud technology, IoT and telemedicine machine learning and AI to overcome disparity of expertise and provide sustainable affordable care. Would “Google DeepMind” or “Watson Health” step up and challenge the current status quo !!!

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Matt Damon's Commencement address

Actor and filmmaker tells graduates: "There’s more at stake today than in any story ever told."

Great speech by Matt Damon: "Turn toward the problems that you see, and engage." We completely agree and stand behind it. 

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Net Positive Healthcare Facilities Transforming Healthcare in Communities in Africa

In spite of the abundant supply of solar energy available in sub-Saharan Africa, many areas are unable to meet the electricity demand for essential services. You may ask why a healthcare NGO such as Better Place International (BPI) would be concerned with electricity, but innovative energy solutions can massively impact an entire community. The World Health Organisation has marked electricity as a public health priority and is teaming up with organisations such as the World Bank, United Nations and United States Agency for International Development, among others, to tackle this issue.

In sub-Saharan Africa, one in four health facilities have no access to electricity and the ones which do depend on an unreliable supply. Imagine the challenges that local and international organisations face when performing surgeries or caring for patients in intensive care units. With some hospitals and clinics having electricity for only 12 hours per day, it is impossible to provide reliable basic healthcare.Energy sources in LIMC often depend on high cost diesel generators, of which less than one third are fully operational. There are huge medical consequences to a lack of electricity: there is no lighting or hot water source, medical devices and vaccine refrigerators become unusable, and it is impossible to carry out night time emergency responses or surgical procedures.

Hospitals consume five times more energy than any other commercial building, but through the design and utilisation of off-grid solar panels, it will be possible to run net zero or even net positive healthcare facilities. In this way, we are not a burden on the community’s energy supply and we can provide the surrounding community with the excess of our electrical resources.

Prioritising solar power over fossil fuel sources can also allow for the use of direct current (DC) power. DC powered building  integrate solar power, batteries (which can store power from the grid), LED light sources and electronics all into one system. Although alternating current (AC) power is the main electrical source in the developed world, mBy using DC power as the main electricity source, energy efficiency can be improved by one third. It also makes the use of smaller, more practical solar power systems possible.

In the Western world, AC won out historically against DC because it was initially far easier to transfer AC across long distances and use transformers to convert it to DC. There would be huge costs and difficulties in switching from AC to DC systems in the developed world, but where limited infrastructure exists, it is far more efficient to use local renewable energy sources which produce DC. As BPI are custom building Zoslu Smart Hospitals, a system such as this can be implemented from the start.

The benefits associated with initial investment in solar powered systems will reduce fuel and operating costs, improve reliable access to energy and cut down on our carbon footprint. Thus we can reinvent energy distribution and provide light and electricity to neighbourhoods in close vicinity to the hospital, as well as creating strong partnerships with the local community.

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Creating New Opportunities for Foundations to Impact Non Profits via Capital Investment

The ways in which organisations can promote social progress is changing. By becoming capital venture investors in the non-profit world, foundations utilise a business-oriented model to have an extraordinary impact on poverty-stricken populations. Examples of such philanthropic organisations include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies and Startup:Education (established by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan).

Revenue versus Capital

So why do non profits need capital in low and middle income countries? Surely reliable, regular revenue which covers day to day operations and programming is the key to a successful sustainable social enterprise, right? Of course, this is true. But if an organisation needs infrastructure to deliver state of the art services, wants to grow, or hopes to build a greater platform on which to operate, capital, not revenue, is the answer.

NGOs need capital to mitigate the risks associated with growth and maintain the quality of services as the organisation expands. With each stage of advancement, additional capital is required to support the enterprise as it adjusts to its newly enhanced levels of operation.

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Non Profits?

Many businesses have several options available to them when expanding their operations such as retained profits, equity (shares) or debt. However, non profits generally face challenges when seeking funding. By its very definition, non profits will not have access to retained profits or equity. But without some form of equity-like capital, projects become more difficult to establish and sustain, program quality dips, contracts go unfulfilled and growth is slow and haphazard. In order to expand their operating platforms, particularly if infrastructure is the cornerstone to their success, NGOs require capital investment. Such capital can come in the form of enterprise capital grants. These will allow NGOs to build programs which attract more revenue, plan for the inevitable deficits associated with growth and approach social change from a business-like perspective.

Big Benefits for Investor Foundations

For example, Better Place International (BPI) plans to build and operate a sustainable, state of the art hospital in Kaduna, Nigeria and one in Gondar, Ethiopia and this project needs financing.

The Lancet commission, sponsored by the WHO and the Gates Foundation, found the economic and health impact of not having surgical facilities in low and middle income countries to be devastating. Morbidity and mortality is on the rise in these areas – nine out of ten people cannot access basic surgical care and five billion people do not have access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care. “Global Surgery 2030: evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare and economic development” makes it clear that without urgent and accelerated in investment in surgical services, low and middle income countries will continue to lose economic productivity at an estimated cost of 12.3 trillion US dollars by 2030.

BPI can fund 85 per cent of the capital cost through international export credit agencies but two conditions must be fulfilled. First, we need impact investor to put at least 15 per cent equity into the project. Second, we need local governments to enter into offtake agreements in order to secure a revenue stream. Foundations can help meet both conditions at minimal risk with capital investment and international networks.

Therefore, BPI is calling on foundations whose mission is to improve healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. By investing in an enterprise which offers a sustainable, innovative model of healthcare delivery, investing foundations can impact each project eight-fold with minimal risk – an impact investment of only 15 per cent is needed to make the project work. Investors will also get a seat at the table of an NGO serving the most vulnerable populations. Foundations may also see monetary returns within a period of just five to seven years. At the end of day, all of us will have to pay for neglecting the underserved communities of the world, with costs up to 100 times those of this smart investment. The fact of the matter is that low and middle income countries require urgent and accelerated investment in their healthcare facilities if economic and human losses are to be avoided.

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Capital, Equity, and Looking at Nonprofits as Enterprises

Clara Miller discusses the role of a healthy capital investment in helping an organization to optimize its impact.

If you need to build a new facility and project finance it in order to provide much needed surgical interventions to the population in Sub Saharan Africa you need 15% equity to be able to get the OECD loans. This should be addressed as impact investment in NGO. Join the conversation.