Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips, underlined the need for improving lives in areas where maternal and infant mortality is concentrated and where nutrition and energy challenges are most acute.
“We look forward to working with the UN and its partners in Every Woman Every Child to deliver impact at scale in regions where women and children need it the most. The goals of Every Woman Every Child are well aligned with Philips’ vision to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation and our ultimate goal of improving the lives of three billion people a year by 2025,” Houten said.
Philips has a long tradition of partnering with national Health Ministries throughout the world and has undertaken several country-wide rehabilitation programs across Africa. By targeting sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia specifically, the company intends to mobilize resources to support access to healthcare through large scale transformation projects, in combination with clinical education and skills training for healthcare professionals.[eap_ad_2]
Through the Philips Africa Innovation Hub, the company will develop and deploy quality solutions and new business models that enable access and improve quality of care for mothers and their children in low-resource settings.
The Innovation Hub has already developed automated respiration monitors that support the diagnosis of pneumonia in children under five, clean cooking stoves and solar lighting, as well as telehealth and mobile-health solutions which can provide early diagnosis and healthy living and nutritional advice. Philips recently piloted telehealth “Mobile Obstetrical Monitoring” (MoM) project in Indonesia to remotely monitor pregnant women for early high risk identification.
Speaking about the contributions of private sector partners such as Philips, the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon said; “The private sector has become eager to increase its engagement, not just because there are business opportunities but because they see the value in ethical business and in helping to improve people’s lives.”
The ‘Every Woman Every Child’ initiative was launched in September 2010 with the aim of saving the lives of 16million women and children by 2015 (two-thirds reduction in under-five mortality and a 75 percent reduction in maternal mortality) through the provision of simple inexpensive tools and practices.
The global initiative seeks to mobilize international and national action by governments, multilaterals, the private sector and civil society to address the major health challenges facing women and children around the world.
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