Before joining R4D, Ms. Adams was a graduate student at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. At Emory, she worked on a mixed-methods study aimed at understanding maternal mortality due to unsafe abortion in Togo, West Africa, producing a master’s thesis on abortion decision-making. She also participated in an internship in Kenya at Indiana University’s AMPATH program, which seeks to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic using a holistic, community-based approach.

Ms. Adams holds an MPH in global health from Emory University and a BS in neuroscience and African studies from St. Lawrence University. She is a native speaker of English and speaks fluent French.

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Washington, DC — The African Collaborative for Health Care Financing Solutions project (ACS) — led by Results for Development (R4D) — today announced a new partnership with the Uganda Healthcare Federation (UHF). This collaboration aims to broaden knowledge and understanding of the Ugandan universal health coverage (UHC) roadmap. UHF will provide support to the roadmap’s implementation by engaging critical stakeholders and leveraging ACS-developed knowledge products in Uganda.

“We have our eyes focused on Vision 2040, and the UHC roadmap is a big component of us achieving this,” said Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, executive director of UHF. “With this contract, UHF anticipates the conversation around UHC in Uganda shall evolve and become a relatable issue for more stakeholders in sectors other than health, all of whom have a role to play in Uganda’s health sector future.”

In 2018, Uganda was at a critical point in moving its health financing strategy forward. With the leadership of Ugandan experts from UHF, ACS supported the development of a national UHC roadmap to enhance coordination among policies, national actors and development partners to concretely and collaboratively advance UHC in the country. The UHC roadmap is now serving as a reference document for the private sector policy document for multi-sectoral private sector inclusion in the national COVID-19 response. This new institutional partnership through ACS  will be pivotal to facilitate a multi-stakeholder process that mobilises civil society and the private sector as contributing partners to advance UHC, while bolstering trust, accountability, and transparency.

Allison Kelley, ACS project director and senior program director R4D, said: “Uganda Healthcare Federation’s trusted relationships with the Government of Uganda, health service providers, the private sector, civil society, and development partners will play a key role in building momentum and buy-in across a broad group of stakeholders to implementing the Ugandan UHC Roadmap.”

As the umbrella body for the Uganda non-state health sector, UHF lobbies, advocates, campaigns, mobilizes and mediates for the private sector. UHF offers a unique connection with Uganda’s private health sector through a diverse membership, and contact database of over 2,000 connections, monthly networking events, newsletter, online presence and regular interactions with the private sector in districts outside Kampala. UHF implements programs related to the Uganda health sector and disseminates information, and contributes to sector development through lobbying and advocacy activities.

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About the African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions
Launched in 2017, the African Collaborative for Health Financing Solutions (ACS) is a five-year, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded project that recognized the political will in SSA to advance UHC. Now moving into its final year, ACS is focused on strengthening the UHC ecosystem and building linkages between countries and regional institutions to build evidence, catalyze learning and sustain momentum. ACS supports the governments of Botswana, Burkina Faso, Namibia, Togo and Uganda to advance their UHC agendas by 1) identifying operational challenges around health financing policies, 2) bringing essential people to the table, then facilitating evidence-based collaboration and processes to design, test, and adapt solutions to tackle those challenges, and 3) creating communication pathways to strengthen and support learning, advocacy and accountability. For more information, visit the ACS web page.

About Results for Development
Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. For more information, visit our website at: www.r4d.org.

Photo © Kate Consavage/USAID

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At R4D, as program director of technology and innovation, Ms. Santiago has led the design of technology products for HANSHEP, a multi-donor consortium focused on private sector approaches in health, for CHMI (DfID- and Gates-supported Center for Health Market Innovations), and for PHCPI (Gates- and World-Bank-supported Primary Healthcare Performance Initiative). She helped create IDIA (International Development Innovation Alliance) and serves as the lead of its Technology Working Group.

Prior to R4D, Ms. Santiago was an entrepreneur. She founded Kangu, a crowdfunding site that connects people online to ensure that every pregnant woman and newborn baby survives and thrives. Kangu was covered in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and has supported the full continuum of maternal and neonatal care to nearly 2,000 patients.  In 2007, Ms. Santiago joined Kiva, the pioneering microfinance site, as one of the first ten employees. Since then, it has mobilized over $750,000,000 (USD) for micro-entrepreneurs around the world. Ms. Santiago was a founding board member of Maternova and currently sits on Fluxx software’s Impact Intelligence Advisory group.

Ms. Santiago began her career in international development consulting at Deloitte Emerging Markets and has advised non-profits, corporations and donor agencies on market-based and people-centered strategies to alleviate poverty and expand access to healthcare. She has worked in partnership with USAID, DfID, BMGF, GTZ, Sida, World Bank, Rockefeller Foundation, GAVI and other organizations.

Ms. Santiago has worked in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College, and has a master’s of business administration from Columbia Business School and a master of arts degree from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. Ms. Santiago blogs for Huffington Post, Women 2.0 and Forbes.com and speaks regularly on topics related to crowdsourcing, social enterprise and motherhood.

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