African Medical and Research Foundation

The African Medical and Research Foundation ( [AMREF] ) is an international African organisation headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.

AMREF's vision is Better Health for Africa.

AMREF's mission is to ensure that every African can enjoy the right to good health by helping to create vibrant networks of informed communities that work with empowered health care providers in strong health systems.

AMREF has 50 years’ experience in health development. In 1957, three surgeons founded the Flying Doctors Service of East Africa, laying the foundation for what is now one of the continent’s leading health development and research organisations. Today, AMREF implements its projects through country programmes in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Southern Sudan and South Africa. Training and consulting support are provided to an additional 30 African countries.

Knowledge is a core product of AMREF’s activities. AMREF implements projects to learn, and shares this evidence-based knowledge with others to advocate for changes in health policy and practice. Based on the belief that health is a basic human right, AMREF seeks to empower communities to take control of their health and to establish a vibrant and participatory health care system made up of communities, health workers and governments.

Strategic Focus

AMREF’s strategy seeks to strengthen health systems and to design and enhance interventions that improve people’s access to health through their active participation. Informed by Africa’s health crisis, AMREF’s comparative advantage and five decades’ experience of working with communities and health systems in the region, the AMREF strategy will be pursued through three interdependent programme themes:

1. Community Partnering for Better Health 2. Health Systems and Policy Research 3. Capacity Building

AMREF presently operates on a $60 million annual budget and implements more than 120 projects throughout Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and elsewhere. AMREF has trained tens of thousands of community and mid-level health care workers, and its doctors have performed over 40,000 major operations. AMREF has a long history of partnering with a diverse range of NGOs, universities (including London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Harvard and Johns Hopkins), and medical institutes for both long-term and goal-specific projects. In addition to this, AMREF routinely works with local Ministries of Health to ensure that necessary services and training are reaching the communities most in need of them.

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) identified AMREF as a key partner in its health programme.

In 1999 AMREF was awarded the Conrad Hilton Prize for Humanitarian work and in 2005 AMREF became the first ever African winner of the Gates Award for Global Health for making major and lasting contribution to the field of health in Africa.

"AMREF is more than a voice of Africa. It is deeds: acts of compassion, of intelligence, of purpose. They've learned how to truly improve health in Africa by asking Africans what needs to be done, and how best to do it."

William. H. Gates Snr - CEO Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Where AMREF Works

AMREF is based in Africa where it has 5 regional offices with a field office in Sudan. Through AMREF's training programmes it is able to reach a much wider range of communities with countries as far afield as Tunisia, Eritrea and Nigeria benefiting from AMREF training courses in clinical health and nursing refresher courses.

Regional and National offices AMREF's offices in Africa implement all the Programmes and are found in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Ethiopia and Sudan.

AMREF has offices in Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, U.K and U.S.A. These offices primarily raise funds for the programmes in Africa.

External links

* [http://www.amref.org/ AMREF website]

[Category:Kenya NGOs]