President Donald Trump announced a freeze on United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funding that has been providing solutions for social well-being amoung other purposes, to millions of our people, especially in Africa. This has immediately created serious inequities in societies, and the long-term impact on healthcare cannot be imagined.
Be that as it may be, it is now an opportune time for healthcare organisations together with other players, to embrace creating shared value strategy (CSV). CSV is termed as a new way of doing business by solving social problems in a way that uplifts the communities where businesses operate. It is a deliberate pursuit that catapults social problems that align with business interests, in this case, gaps created by USAID funding cuts, to the core of the organisations strategy. CSV creates economic value while simultaneously creating social value. Instead of businesses closing the gaps through providing the cut services at an unaffordable cost CSV enables businesses to do the same at low costs while making profits with purpose.
While several multinational organisations have already adopted shared value, the White House’s shocking decisions present an opportunity for local pharmaceuticals, medical devicesand healthcare providers to rethink their strategies and adopt CSV. This strategy though fairly new, has revolutionalised corporate thinking, reinvented new products in the markets, reimagined value chains, and increased market share for early adopters. This is not the time to be looking east for new donors but looking internally to the capability of organisations with ethical social-entrepreneurial lenses. CSV guarantees new revenue streams for businesses and improves the status of stakeholders.
