Blog

Strengthening local health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), involves improving access to quality health care, essential medicines and medical supplies. It also requires strengthening health workforces by increasing the number of health care providers and improving their training and development. Additionally, building strong partnerships between public and private sectors, as well as civil society organisations, is crucial to ensure access to quality health care services.

Since the start of the armed conflict in Ukraine last year many organisations provided emergency shipments of medicine, medical supplies, and other essential goods to the country. This is crucial, as the country's healthcare system has been severely impacted, leaving those affected by the war without access to the medical care they need.

As the end of 2022 is approaching, we would like to wish our entire network a happy and healthy new year. We look forward to another year of bridging the gap and building healthy futures together with our partners and customers. Watch the video below to learn about some of our activities and achievements in the past year!

Personal contact between our wholesale team and our agents and distributors is essential to our organisation. By regular visits to these partners in countries where we operate, we maintain an open and transparent relationship where both parties can express challenges and share experiences or ideas.

The past months we have been sharing our progress when it comes to sustainability and our approach towards achieving our long-term goals. On this Sustainability Day we would like to introduce some of the members of IDA’s Sustainability Team, who are working on IDA’s progress.

On World Values Day, we take some time to think about what we value most in life. IDA Foundation’s five core values shape our unique working culture and unite our people in achieving our long-term goals of Universal Health Coverage, Strengthened Local Capacity and Sustainable Value Chains. This year’s theme is ‘Values for Community’ as values help to unite, guide, and motivate us.

On this Dutch Diversity Day, we would like to share some of our insights when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As we set out our strategic roadmap, IDA prioritised key Sustainable Development Goals that we can make an impact on, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). These goals help us with shaping our policies, making sure all our employees feel safe and valued at work.

The SDG Action Days (23-27 September) are an opportunity to highlight sustainable progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which goals call for urgent action and is an opportunity to look for ways in which we can collaboratively take extra steps towards achieving the SDGs.

Last Saturday, 17 September, was World Cleanup Day. On this day, awareness is raised on the global waste problem while uniting governments, volunteers and organisations around the world.

After many months of preparation and excitement, last Thursday, IDA Foundation celebrated its 50th anniversary at our #BuildingHealthyFutures event with partners and colleagues from around the world.

This week is the Global week for action on non-communicable diseases (NCDs)! This campaign is an initiative of the NCD Alliance and was first organised in 2018, ahead of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs. The campaign focuses on the biggest gaps to progress on NCDs being accountability, investment, leadership, community engagement and care.

In the lead up to IDA Foundation’s 50th anniversary this November, we have been sharing stories from our global partner network over the past months. This month, we caught up with one of IDA’s key supply chain partners, Kuehne+Nagel.

At IDA Foundation, we believe that everyone in the world has the right to access quality medication and health care. Our international and diverse teams in Amsterdam and Mumbai are working hard toward our long-term goal of Universal Health Coverage, and supporting our mission of Bridging the Gap in Access to Medicines.

This year marks IDA’s 50th anniversary. Counting down to November 21 we are looking back at some of our key activities and achievements. As part of our 50 years IDA story campaign, we would like to share a brief IDA timeline with you. Watch the below video and learn about some of our milestones from the past five decades!

On World Bicycle Day we raise awareness of the (health) benefits of cycling. As the bicycle is a very popular mode of transport in the Netherlands, we motivate our employees to choose the bicycle for commuting. We are happy to see it pays off as many  of our staff members choose the bicycle to get to our office in Amsterdam.

Quality Assurance (QA) is at the core of IDA's mission and integrated into IDA's values and a key driver of ensuring we achieve our three strategic long-term goals.

We believe that everyone in the world has the right to access quality medication and health care. Our international and diverse teams in Amsterdam and Mumbai are working hard towards achieving Universal Health Coverage, which is one of our long-term goals supporting our mission of Bridging the Gap in Access to Medicines.

Each year, on the 22nd of April, more than a billion people celebrate Earth Day and aim to protect our planet from pollution and deforestation. The environment has a big impact on our health, that’s why IDA Foundation held their own Earth Day campaign among staff members to raise awareness about the importance of sustainability and to share habits that are environment-friendly.

The Russian invasion has had a devastating impact on Ukraine’s health infrastructure; many hospitals are destroyed or severely damaged, depriving people from the essential medical care. Aside from emergency healthcare, regular care has also come under pressure due to lack of access to and/or shortages of basic medicines and medical supplies. This poses a major threat to the continuation of care for the people in country.

In today’s world, medical supplies are crucial to safe and effective prevention, diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of disease or illness, as well as for patient rehabilitation and palliation. These medical supplies must be safe, of good quality, and appropriate to the settings in which they are used. Recognising the important role of medical supplies toward universal health coverage, we continue our 50th anniversary story campaign with an insight into the role of IDA’s suppliers of medical supplies and their contribution to making quality assured health care products available for all. Two of these suppliers are Poly Medicure (Polymed) and Jiangsu Allwell Medical Products (Allwell), who have been collaborating with IDA Foundation for many years.

On this International Women’s Day we are happy to announce a new partnership with Aakar Innovations. Aakar is an Indian social enterprise that developed Anandi pads which are the first patented and certified compostable sanitary pads available in the country.

To celebrate our 50th anniversary, we share monthly stories from our global stakeholder network, ranging from customers and suppliers to agents & distributors and employees. This time we would like to give you an insight in what it’s like to be part of the IDA Foundation team.

Our 50th anniversary Stories campaign continues with an insight into the role of IDA’s (pharmaceutical) suppliers. Our quality-assured products are available to our customers thanks to the strong, long-time relationships we have with suppliers who share our commitment to quality.

This week, our colleague Alexander has visited one of our agents and some other local health partners in Madagascar. After a long period of not being able to travel dus to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are happy that these important visits to local health partners worldwide are possible again. We recognise the added value of personal visits and we believe this improves relationships and helps us to keep bridging the gap in access to medicines.

IDA Pacific has been a partner of IDA Foundation for fifteen years now, and by keeping their own stock of IDA products, they ensure that the people living in the Pacific region have access to quality medical supplies and essential medicines. Their remote location makes their experiences very different from other regions due to their remote location. They shared some insights as part of IDA's 50th Anniversary Stories campaign.

As part of our strategic goal of Strengthened Local Capacity, IDA Foundation works closely with agents and distributors in low- and middle-income countries. One of the latest members of IDA’s local distribution network is Health Pharmaceutical Company (HPC) in Douala, Cameroon.

With just a few days of 2021 left, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what was another challenging and inspiring year, which fortunately also brought new opportunities, insights, and highlights.

One month ago, IDA celebrated its 49th anniversary, meaning we are currently in our 50th anniversary year! For this occasion, we are launching our Stories Campaign, where we highlight stories from partners in our global network. Looking at the future of health in the coming 50 years, the theme of our anniversary campaign is ‘Building healthy futures’, in line with our vision, mission and dedication to global health.

We have some catching up to do! The pandemic has limited our ability to travel to IDA’s partners around the world. Fortunately, online meetings and contacts are efficient and allow us to work effectively as well. Nonetheless, we recognise the added value that local face-to-face meetings have, and current visits to our African agents. distributors and other partners were long overdue.

On World Values Day, we take some time to look at what we value most in life. IDA Foundation's five values shape our unique culture and unite our people in achieving our goals. We believe our values help us in achieving our mission of bridging the gap in access to medicines and our values facilitate the achievement of our long-term goals of Universal Health Coverage, Strengthened Local Capacity and Sustainable Value Chains.

This month, our Area Manager Alexander traveled for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As with many countries in Africa, COVID-19 restrictions are still in place, meaning that travelling has become more complex, for example with additional testing to cross borders. Nonetheless, these visits are important and very valuable to both parties to enhance our relationships, exchange knowledge and expertise, and visit health (storage) facilities.

On the 25th of September, Dutch organisations, municipalities, the Dutch ministries and embassies together take part in the flag day, an event through which they show their support for the United Nations’ Global Goals / SDGs. More than 850 Global Goals-flags will be raised on this day!

This week, our colleague Rheinhard Hein hosted two training sessions for all IDA employees on Diversity and Inclusion. As we set out our strategic roadmap, IDA prioritised key Sustainable Development Goals that we can make an impact on, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). We asked Rheinhard to provide some key insights to the subject, and why this training is so valuable for a future-proof workforce.

At IDA Foundation we believe learning lies at the basis of both professional- and personal development. In one of our previous blogs we shared some information on how we address learning and make sure all our colleagues have the opportunity to develop themselves. We mentioned our HR initiative of Social Learning courses, the access our colleagues have to the LinkedIn Learning platform, and how we create a learning environment where we hire and train interns.

Did you know IDA has already been active for almost 50 years? As we move nearer to this special 50th anniversary in 2022, we are reflecting on some key facts and figures. Keep an eye on our blog to see how you could become a part of IDA’s 50 year celebrations and impact.

Today, August 19, is World Humanitarian Day. On this day we honour the people who have dedicated their lives to humanitarian causes and sacrificed their lives for the betterment of humanity. Whether it's supporting refugees fleeing from political conflict, or by providing help to victims of natural disasters, they are in the field to help others.

As an employer, IDA Foundation aims to create an open learning environment for all of our people. We achieve this by stimulating learning on the job. This includes (online) courses and workshops for our employees, to develop their professional knowledge as well as social skills, which help them to develop and grow within the organisation.

Earlier this year, IDA Foundation was invited to participate in the video series ‘Phases of the Global Goals’ created by the UN Global Compact Netherlands. IDA is a participant of UN Global Compact since 2018 and since then we have been redefining and shaping our strategy and short- and long-term goals to better align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In March this year, IT updated the IDA laptops, thereby allowing all IDA colleagues to work efficiently from home during lockdown. As the old IDA laptops were still fit for use, we looked for a sustainable way to give them a new life.

IDA Foundation has a large global network of over thirty agents and distributors. We work closely together with our agents and distributors, as they provide essential local knowledge and expertise. Strengthened Local Capacity is one of our newly formulated long-term goals, as part of our sustainable strategy, which helps us to build and strengthen local health systems.

Over the past year, IDA Foundation has shipped a large number of PED/SAM (pediatric severe acute malnutrition) kits to multiple countries in Africa and to Yemen.  The PED/SAM kit consists of seven different modules each containing either essential medicines, renewables and other medical equipment suitable for the treatment of children who are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and associated medical complications. With these much-needed kits we have helped our customers treat around 40.000 children in the last year.

With most organisations working from home for over a year now, many of us at IDA will say that we have managed to keep our organisation running quite smoothly. But a big aspect of working life are our colleagues and the office culture. So how are we staying connected to our colleagues and holding on to the IDA team spirit?

Access to good quality healthcare is a challenge for many people in Sudan - a country with a population of almost 43 million people. In the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, IDA assembled over 600 Rapid Response Kits (RRKs) for one of our main customers, to specifically support primary healthcare needs in eight different remote locations in Sudan.

Within the context of upcoming International Women's Day (IWD) on March 8, we approached a few of our female agents and distributors with some questions regarding gender equality.

This month, IDA supplied 500 oxygen concentrators to Dubai and Ghana for one our largest customers to be distributed to various end destinations in Africa and Asia.

IDA Foundation has published its annual Product Indicator. This booklet provides an overview of the products we supply. The sections on diagnostics and medical supplies are also available in French in addition to English. All medicines and supplies in the Product Indicator are grouped according to the WHO classification of Essential Medicines as listed in the Essential Medicines List (EML).

In 2020, we were all challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic. But the crisis also provided an opportunity to reflect on what's important, whether we are in a crisis or not. More than ever, it has become clear that solid health systems are indispensable when fighting both pandemics and endemics. If we want to overcome any global health crises, we all need to work together.

World AIDS Day, held on December 1 since 1988, is an international day dedicated to creating awareness of the HIV/AIDS burden worldwide. Thus far, of the approximately 38 million people with HIV worldwide, around 26 million are on retroviral therapy, which is triple the number in 2010 (UN Report, 2020). Furthermore, AIDS-related deaths have fallen by 56% since 2005 (UNAIDS, 2019). Despite these achievements, significant challenges remain, with increasing rates of infections in key communities.

Today marks the beginning of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. This week aims to create awareness around the accelerated threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and stop responding to medicines, increasing the risk of diseases and severe illnesses.

Today, October 6, we celebrate Diversity Day at IDA Foundation. For this occasion we asked a few team members, among which our Director HR, to tell us what diversity means to them and how IDA is addressing this.