LGT Venture Philanthropy announces three-year follow-on investment in AMP Health to strengthen primary healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa
Washington, DC, USA, 26 October 2021 – LGT Venture Philanthropy Foundation (LGT VP) announces its continued engagement with AMP Health, a public-private partnership based in South Africa. With its three-year follow-on investment, LGT VP seeks to help AMP Health grow from working in seven countries and 10 Ministry of Health (MOH) teams to 19 countries and 23 MOH teams by 2024.
A leading partner in Africa, working with multiple countries to build innovative and effective public health teams
Founded in 2015, AMP Health works to improve health systems and outcomes by collaborating with governments to strengthen the leadership and management capacity within MOH teams. Led by Dr. Robert Newman, AMP Health’s approach combines embedded mentoring and capability development; experiential learning through interactive in-person and online training; executive coaching; curated self-directed learning; and peer exchange across countries to build highly effective public sector teams and accelerate the adoption of new technologies and facilitate the sharing of best practices.
A cost-effective model, to equip government teams to scale national community health systems
After one year into the partnership, LGT VP has come to know AMP Health as an effective organization that empowers government teams to better define, plan and execute national health strategies. AMP Health’s solutions and a lean team have rendered the organization’s work attractive to national governments and strengthened AMP Health’s reputation across Africa. The embedded nature of AMP Health’s model as well as a successful pivot to online learning sessions allowed MOH teams not only to respond to the pandemic swiftly, but also to ensure that essential healthcare services continued.
A driving force, expanding LGT VP’s network to health thought leaders across the continent
One of LGT VP's health strategy goals is to support national community healthcare solutions in five African countries by 2023. The foundation has developed a complementary healthcare strategy, which supports intermediaries that build finance and management capacity within MOH teams on the one hand, and improves on-the-ground health providers’ operational capacity on the other. AMP Health’s work is complementary to that of other innovative organizations in the LGT VP portfolio, including the Financing Alliance for Health, mothers2mothers and Last Mile Health.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the complexities that public health teams face. Effective responses to the pandemic require teams that have the leadership skills to mobilize people across sectors and the management skills to effectively carry out complex operations,” says Dr Newman. “LGT VP’s system-wide approach is an excellent example of the type of commitment required to strengthen health systems at scale.”
“At LGT VP, we firmly believe in the importance of strong teams with robust finance and management capabilities. AMP Health demonstrated its ability to strengthen L&M skills of MOH teams in many African countries. 95% of MOH team members report that L&M has increased their ability to make significant contributions to public health in their country. Through our multi-year commitment to support AMP Health to further expand their work, LGT VP supports countries across the African continent to build stronger health systems that are high in quality and accessible to everyone,” states Tom Kagerer, Partner at LGT Venture Philanthropy.
AMP Health is a non-profit initiative supporting governments to build visionary and effective public sector teams. It has its main operational hub in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is supported by a team at the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC. For more information, please visit www.amphealth.org.
LGT Venture Philanthropy is an independent charitable foundation established in 2007 with teams in Switzerland, Sub-Saharan Africa and India. The foundation strives to improve the quality of life of disadvantaged people, contribute to healthy ecosystems and build resilient, inclusive and prosperous communities. LGT VP deploys philanthropic capital to organizations with effective, innovative and scalable solutions to social and environmental challenges, thus directly contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. For more information, please visit www.lgtvp.com.