KENYA – Kenya’s outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta has officially commissioned the construction of the new Amref International University (AMIU) that will offer practical training on health sciences programmes in an effort to improve access to healthcare for remote communities across Africa.
Headquartered in Kenya, Amref Health Africa is the largest Africa-based International Non-Governmental Organization (INGO) that engages in programme development, fundraising, partnership, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation for sustainable health access.
Amref runs programmes in over 35 countries in Africa, has offices in Europe and North America as well as subsidiaries namely Amref Flying Doctors, Amref Enterprises and the Amref International University to facilitate engagement with governments, communities and partners.
Amref International University was established in 2017 in Nairobi County in Kenya as a Premier Pan African University of health sciences fully owned by Amref focused on training, research and extension in health sciences with emphasis on promotive, preventive, rehabilitative and palliative health.
AMREF’s 65 years of quality and innovative public and community health intervention and training has significantly contributed to the improvement of the health sector in Kenya and Africa as a whole
The AMIU is set to open a new branch campus in Kiambu County in an effort to bridge the gap in training human resources for health and meet the demand for quality and holistic learning in health sciences in line with AMIU’s mandate of developing an appropriate health workforce for Africa’s primary health care.
The University’s mission is to develop a competent health workforce which is critical in driving equitable access to primary health and ultimately scaling up and strengthening quality of health workforce education and training to address the global shortage of health workers.
The construction project comes at a time when availability of health workers in Africa is considerably lower compared with other regions of the world which is clearly noticeable by the health care worker shortage and unequal distribution of human resources between urban and rural areas.
In addition, the teaching institution will significantly contribute to the Ministry of Health’s momentum to accelerate competence-based learning in the training and curriculum of health professionals to respond to technological advancements and changing global health care needs.
President Uhuru Kenyatta observed that health workforce is one of the core building blocks of any health system hence the need for skilled, equipped, adequately and well-trained health workforce is critical to the health ecosystem.
Uhuru Kenyatta said that Kenya’s efforts to attain Universal Health Coverage and Africa’s socio-economic success post-COVID-19 is anchored on the recovery of its health system while noting that the health system is reliant on a robust health workforce.
“Access to quality and affordable healthcare remains a strong pillar in Universal Health Coverage supported by a strong and a fit-for-purpose health workforce,” stated Dr Githinji Gitahi, Group Chief Executive Officer Amref Health Africa.
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