The pandemic has reached all corners of the globe, magnifying and exacerbating existing inequities and disproportionately affecting communities with fragile health and economic systems. This prolonged crisis has only underscored the need for coordinated action — from the community health worker level to the global policy level — to advance better health outcomes for all. In this session from the 2022 Aspen Ideas Festival, Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation joined three Skoll Awardees in conversation around serving communities and constructing the robust public-health infrastructure needed to improve health care quality and access globally.
Angela Gichaga is CEO of Financing Alliance for Health, which supports Ministries of Health across the African continent to develop the policies, strategies, and investment cases for community health, while also engaging with Ministries of Finance to secure budget lines for these programs. Edith Elliott is Co-CEO at Noora Health, which taps potential of a patients’ family as the caregiving unit at home and turns hospital hallways and waiting areas into classrooms, while also building mobile messaging technologies that support families directly in their homes. Aparna Hegde is Chair of Armman, which leverages technology to expand information access and promote health seeking behavior for pregnant women, mothers, and children along with training health care providers to improve health service delivery.
Collectively, these three leaders represent the forefront of innovation of health systems and rethinking what health infrastructure looks like and how it is valued. Their lifesaving work has never been more urgent.
