A Year of Impact: Baraka Impact Finance’s 2023

As 2023 concludes, we at Baraka Impact Finance affirm our conviction that health is not only a fundamental human right but also a smart investment. Reflecting on the year, we have witnessed significant strides in global health and innovative finance, yet challenges persist. The pandemic has laid bare the profound inequities in global health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where millions continue to lack access to good quality and affordable health services, derailing the collective progress toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a global health physician, the challenges affecting underserved populations that I have witnessed offer opportunities for novel interventions driven by principles of equity, technology, data utilization, and cost-effectiveness while anchored in solid primary healthcare foundations.?

Throughout this year, our journey has been marked by inspiring milestones, each contributing to our mission of fostering equitable and sustainable health improvements through sound investments empowered by robust data analytics. This article is a reflection of our accomplishments this year and a testament to the collective efforts and dedication of the global health and impact investment communities that have joined us in the pursuit of achieving SDG3. This pivotal moment within the SDG timeline calls for sustained collaboration and new investments in innovative solutions for global health, reinforcing the importance of working closely with partners in shaping a healthier and more equitable future.

Global Health Convenings, Multilateral Partnerships, Strengthened Commitments?

In 2023, the global landscape of health and impact investment witnessed a transformative journey marked by significant milestones, collaborative partnerships, and engaging global events. These achievements underscore the collective efforts of the global health community and impact investors in addressing urgent challenges and advancing equitable and sustainable health outcomes for all. As the year concludes, reflections on the progress made highlight a shift in the narrative surrounding global health and innovative finance. Throughout the year, pivotal events such as the World Health Assembly (WHA), the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 78), the World Health Summit (WHS), the Global Impact Investment Forum (GIIN), and SOCAP23, among others, served as platforms for multi-stakeholder discussions on the urgent need for innovative financing mechanisms and the imperative to invest in sustainable solutions to chronic global health disparities.

This year also saw the launch of the Impact Investment Initiative for Global Health (Triple I for GH): a visionary response to the pressing financial challenges within the global health landscape. With leadership from the Government of Japan and endorsement during the G7 Hiroshima Summit, Triple I for GH is a collective effort to elevate awareness and exchange best practices regarding impact investment in the health sector of LMICs.? Launched at the UNGA 78, the initiative brings together development finance institutions (DFIs), public development banks (PDBs), multilateral development banks (MDBs), private companies and organizations to unite in co-creating a framework that mobilizes private sector investments.? Baraka Impact Finance is proud to be a co-founding partner of this initiative and looks forward to contributing our expertise around the critical role that data and predictive analytics must play in accelerating capital mobilization to meet SDG3 funding demands.??

As we stand on the threshold of a new era in global health, the collective wisdom drawn from these reports and global meetings of 2023 provides us with a path forward. It is a path that demands a fundamental overhaul of national and international systems for financing health, treating health spending not as a mere expense but as a long-term investment in our collective well-being. To deliver `Health for All′, we must channel more resources and higher quality financing into the health sector, ensuring that every individual, regardless of their economic status, can access the care they need.?

Innovation, including robust data analytics, fuels progress and requires collective intelligence and concrete efforts from companies, government agencies, and communities. It is only through collaboration and transparent partnerships that we can ensure the fruits of innovation reach every corner of our global community, especially those historically neglected.

LMIC debt servicing eclipses health spending

The year 2023 also highlighted the stark challenges many LMICs face, trapped in a debt crisis that hinders their ability to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). With 52 countries in serious debt trouble, spending more on debt servicing than healthcare, the call for action has never been louder. This message echoed during the major meetings that brought global leaders together in 2023. We heard time and time again that we need a paradigm shift in debt management, one that places the health and well-being of populations above the repayment of creditors. Debt restructuring, innovative financing models, and public-private partnerships are avenues that must be explored with urgency and creativity.

The intractable linkage between climate & health

As discussions at events like the WHA, UNGA 78, and WHS highlighted, the interconnectedness of climate change, extreme weather events, and planetary health necessitates holistic approaches that engage local communities, indigenous peoples, youth, and women in co-creating solutions. Climate change is not just an environmental issue; it is a health issue that affects us all. By 2050, it is expected to cause an additional 250,000 deaths annually.? To combat this, we must adopt a holistic approach to planetary health, one that recognizes the interlinkages between human, animal, and ecosystem health. Engaging with local communities, indigenous peoples, youth, and women in co-creating solutions will be essential to our collective success. There are unprecedented opportunities for collaboration between impact investors deploying capital in climate-smart solutions and healthcare, including intersecting impact metrics, common frameworks, and cross-sectoral reporting.

Poverty as a predictor of poor health outcomes?

The mandate for affordable and high-quality health solutions for the financially vulnerable and the underserved is clear. People living in poverty experience higher disease burdens. This is not only true in LMICs but also in the U.S., where county-level data demonstrates a clear correlation between poverty levels and higher mortality for certain chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, and others. During the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty became a strong predictor of infection risk, negative health outcomes, and mortality. This type of evidence reminds us that socioeconomic determinants impact health outcomes and the granular data and tailored solutions required to positively impact the health of diverse communities globally.

Publications such as the 2023 Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and the Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global Monitoring Report from the World Health Organization and the World Bank revealed that more than one billion people spend over 10% of their household budget on health, emphasizing the urgent need for adequate health financing and social protection mechanisms-, and painted painting a stark picture of stagnation in health service coverage and financial protection. The MPI Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) revealed that while progress has been made, over 1.1 billion individuals remain trapped in poverty. The release of the Sustainable Development Report was a powerful reminder of the critical gaps exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in LMICs. The report’s findings were clear: while we have made strides, progress on the SDGs is behind schedule. Still the aspirations for the SDGs, and the very specific targets they contain, are powerful goalposts that motivate collective action by governments, NGOs, the private sector, communities, and individuals. To achieve further progress on SDG3 targets, a breakthrough in health, development, and poverty data collection and analytics is essential.? Only through real-time tracking of the dynamics enabling or jeopardizing the success of health service initiatives can we improve understanding of the deprivations faced by the poor and ensure that interventions are tailored to the communities they serve and the market conditions in which they are deployed.?

Health as a Human Right: Re-framing policy, financing transformation

Packed with clear recommendations and expert analysis, the report Health for All: Transforming Economies to Deliver What Matters by Mariana Mazzucato et al. calls for a fundamental overhaul of national and international systems for financing health. It emphasizes that spending on health should be viewed as a long-term investment, requiring more money and higher quality financing. The report also underscores the need for an end-to-end health innovation ecosystem that prioritizes the common good, ensuring that innovation benefits all, not just a select few.?

"A healthy population is not just human and social capital or a by-product of economic growth. Health is a fundamental human right. States can move from reactively fixing market failures to proactively and collaboratively shaping markets that prioritize human and planetary health." - Professor Mariana Mazzucato - Chair, WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All

A deep understanding of local challenges, opportunities, and trends, along with regulatory familiarity by local entrepreneurs, are strong enablers in creating needs-driven solutions to address some of the main pain points in healthcare for underserved populations. Such innovators are developing solutions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to serve underserved populations in other developed markets. They have demonstrated success in improving the lives of millions of people with context-tailored solutions and are ready to scale and impact more individuals. These entrepreneurs are the inspiration for our vision at Baraka Impact Finance.?

To highlight the work and investment opportunities for innovative healthcare solutions created by entrepreneurs worldwide, we hosted 2 Baraka Impact Thursday sessions, showcasing 8 companies dedicated to transforming healthcare in underserved markets. We will continue hosting these sessions during 2024, bringing together investors and innovative founders to reshape healthcare delivery by mobilizing private investments for underserved communities in emerging and frontier markets.

Partnerships - a cornerstone for meaningful and scaled impact

During 2023, Baraka Impact Finance consolidated existing partnerships and established new ones with the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, the UNDP Sustainable Finance Hub, the Heidelberg Institute for Global Health, the Bay Area Global Health Alliance, and others. Such partners have contributed to enriching our perspectives and innovative approaches to tailored data collection for investments in health, evidence-based evaluation of social enterprises, innovative financial models, and health solutions for LMICs that leverage new technologies for the unique demands and contexts of diverse communities. These partnerships underscore the interconnectedness of global health challenges and the need for cross-sector collaboration to drive impactful and lasting change.

More broadly, the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) has been highlighted in all major meetings and calls to action this year. Considered a fundamental pillar for resource mobilization, PPP can ensure that innovation is scaled and effectively addresses equity in health service delivery. With an estimated annual gap of 370 billion USD to achieve SDG3 in LMICs, success is not feasible without leveraging private sector investment and innovation. Today, the private sector provides more than half of all healthcare in Africa and over 80 percent in South Asia. Refining, adapting and growing PPP solutions, that enroll and integrate private resources and ingenuity will ensure health solutions can scale with the quality and equity aspired to in the SDG3 targets.??

As Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, stated, “Although collaboration is the path, impact is the destination.” The question is no longer “if” but “how” the private and public sectors will collaborate to innovate and deliver healthcare.

The Launch of Baraka Analytics: Intelligence for Impact?

The unveiling of Baraka Analytics, at the World Health Summit in Berlin in October of this year marked a milestone for Baraka Impact Finance and for the social impact finance ecosystem, more broadly. Baraka Analytics provides online access to a vetted pipeline of private investment opportunities - showcasing in-depth profiles of growth-stage companies in emerging and frontier markets. It includes market contextualizing data from the World Bank, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), and the UNDP, showcasing health system, infrastructure, technology, and financial insights to expedite investor review and reduce diligence costs. The tool provides visibility and access for young companies to diverse investors, service providers, and other stakeholders with the intent to catalyze co-investment and other strategic collaborations. The Baraka Analytics unveiling featured a dynamic panel of company founders and health innovation thought leaders; titled Journey to Scale: Data, Finance and Health Equity, the rapid-fire interview format offered insights from those on the front line of health transformation in LMICs.

Baraka Impact’s investment lenses - equity, quality, access, and affordability - guide the identification and curation of impact KPI for pipeline companies on Baraka Analytics and in the selection of external data used to validate market context.? As a physician who has worked around the world addressing health access challenges, the potential power of Baraka Analytics to revolutionize the health financing landscape in emerging and frontier markets fills me we a deep sense of purpose.???

In 2024, Baraka Analytics will begin a 6-month pilot with a cohort of 50+ Baraka pipeline companies and 25 global health capital allocators, including DFIs, impact fund managers, corporate venture funds, philanthropies, and family offices worldwide. Based on user feedback and the invaluable partnerships with Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, Heidelberg University Institute for Global Health, the UNDP SDG Finance Hub and others, we look forward to continuing to increase the platform’s ability to provide robust evidence-based insights to guide investment decision making and to solve for the unacceptable health disparities which currently characterize health services.

A Vision for the Future

At Baraka Impact Finance, we define health equity as the absence of unfair and avoidable or remediable differences in health among population groups, whether those groups are defined socially, economically, demographically, or geographically. The motivation for the work we do is to contribute to a future in which health equity is the norm, a world in which where you were born, the community you were born into, the society in which you find yourself living do not determine your level of health and wellness, nor whether you live or you die.??

As we turn the final pages of 2023, we stand at the intersection of reflection and progress, and we look ahead with optimism. The challenges were many, but so were the opportunities. With innovative tools, the support of our visionary partners, and growing global commitments to investments in health, the Baraka Impact Finance team looks forward to continuing to contribute and lead an impact-first revolution in health financing.?

About the Author: Carolina Batista, MD, is a global health expert with almost two decades of experience in global health initiatives across different sectors and regions. She is the Head of Global Health Affairs at Baraka Impact Finance. She is also a former International Board Member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), a member of the Access Committee of Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), a board member of Movement Health Foundation, and a member of The Lancet Migration Latin America Board. She holds an MD from Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Brazil, a Masters in International Health from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Switzerland, and an advanced diploma on Planning and Management of Reproductive Health Programs at Prince Leopold Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.