Globally, regionally, nationally and within nations, the world has witnessed several radical and incremental transformative initiatives- ranging from public health, human and social development, environmental and sustainable social responsibility- that have been conceptualized, designed and implemented to contribute to desired improvements such as manufacturing, introducing and scaling new and under-used vaccines, addressing learning poverty and improving access to quality education, innovative financing of renewable energy sources, climate and environmental stewardship etc.
Despite significant human improvements, between and within regions, countries and sub-nationally, human improvement indicators’ disparities exist along geographical, social, educational, economic, gender and other parameters, that are often hidden, calling for deliberate and targeted efforts to identify, target and reach these populations, as part of regular programming. Countries and sub-national areas also face complex, rapidly changing, multiple (and often paradoxical) human development challenges that require contextualized solutions, cross-sectoral (systems) thinking, collaboration and capacity development.
Afya and partners aim to respond to this challenge by conceptualizing new human development ideas, rethinking existing ones and scaling tested contextualized solutions. Working with partners and clients, Afya seeks to catalyze adoption of programme beneficiaries-centered interventions design and implementation, to leverage multi-partner collaborations premised on a cross-sectoral approaches, to unlock new or non-traditional partners that prioritizes, invests and delivers innovative interventions and to facilitate community ownership and accountability in programming. Thus, while Afya will focus on four key practice areas- health, human and social development, environment and sustainable social responsibility, Afya will make a difference by drawing the interconnections between these practice areas.