23rd June, 2011
The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) recently hosted a breakfast meeting to explore ways in which the association and AMREF can work together. The event was held on June 14 at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi.
Welcoming guests to the function, the Chief Executive officer of KAM, Betty Maina, said the breakfast was the result of a discussion that she had had with AMREF’s Director General, Dr Teguest Guerma, on the need for increased local support for organisations such as AMREF, so that they do not have to rely on external support. She stressed the need for corporates and companies to invest in long-term support of local initiatives, rather than one-off projects that do not make a real and sustained impact on people’s lives.
“For over 50 years, AMREF has been working with African communities in the most remote and impoverished areas of the continent and making a real difference in the lives of communities. With KAM’s support we are looking at ways for the African corporates to be involved in this success story, and to ensure that AMREF continues to develop and share innovative ways to improve health in Africa,” she said.
(Click on the image to view a picture slideshow of the breakfast)
Dr Guerma gave an overview of AMREF and the work that it does within communities, with a current focus on the health of women and children. She emphasised the fact that AMREF values partnerships – with governments, institutional and corporate donors, communities and community organisations, academic institutions and research organisations – because this is the only way to be efficient and effective, and to reach as many people as possible. Private-public partnerships, she said, provide a win-win situation because organisations like AMREF are better able to meet their objectives with support from the private partners, while the corporates build goodwill among their clients and a healthy customer base, leading to increased sales.
The Director General pointed out that AMREF is not an emergency organisation seeking to find quick solutions to problems.
“We do not treat the symptoms. We find the root cause, and work with communities to find long-lasting solutions to their health problems,” she said, and urged KAM members to get involved in long-term support of AMREF’s work.
The meeting was also addressed by Madame Ida Odinga, Chief Executive Officer of East Africa Spectra and patron of the White Ribbon Alliance in Kenya, KAM chairman Mr Jas Bedi and Mr Rene Kiamba, Johnson&Johsnon’s manager for Corporate Contributions and Giving in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Madame Odinga, who is also the wife of Kenya’s Prime Minister, stressed the importance of nutrition in ensuring that the country raises healthy children, who will in turn become healthy parents. Noting that nutrition is one of the areas where AMREF has placed great emphasis, Madame Odinga urged food manufacturers to boost this effort by fortifying their products with vitamins and minerals.
Mr Bedi said he was excited about the proposed partnership between KAM and AMREF because it aimed to set up systems for long-term support to communities, rather than one-of projects that did not make a real change in the lives of the people. “This partnership is important because it offers value addition for AMREF and KAM members. Increasingly, companies are moving away from merely meeting their Corporate Social Responsibility through projects to becoming Responsible Social Corporates, with greater and more meaningful engagement with society.”
To showcase an example of how AMREF works with Corporates, Mr Kiamba gave an overview of AMREF’s partnership with Johnson&Johnson, which supports the Management Development Institute (MDI). The MDI is a training programme run by AMREF and the Anderson School at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to enhance the leadership and management skills of administrators of governmental and non-governmental institutions in delivery of health services to underserved populations.
Thirty-five students attended the first MDI class, held in Nairobi, Kenya in 2006. The course has now been established in West Africa and Southern Africa as well, and has so far graduated 537 students. Said Mr Kiamba: “It is important that donors think beyond giving cheques, and instead find ways to interact with AMREF in sustainable programmes that make a real impact in Africa.”
A couple of days after the breakfast meeting, Dr Guerma addressed a wider group of KAM members at their Annual General Meeting with a similar appeal for support. Several members pledged to explore ways in which they could partner with AMREF.
