Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA On March 16th, 2016.
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA on March 16th, 2016.
Original Title
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA on March 16th, 2016.
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA on March 16th, 2016.
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA On March 16th, 2016.
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, First Lady of The Republic of Kenya at The Thunderbird School of Global Management, Phoenix, Arizona, USA on March 16th, 2016.
THUNDERBIRD SCHOOL OF GLOBAL MANAGEMENT, PHOENIX, ARIZONA, US ON MARCH 16TH, 2016.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon,
I am pleased and excited to be with you today. Being here,
on a campus that is widely recognised as a leading educational institution, I know that I am surrounded by some of the worlds brightest young minds. All of you students, by virtue of being here, have already demonstrated that you are intellectual luminaries; smart, engaged and full of ideas. But as you all know, being a trail blazer in business, requires more than a capable mind. Boldness, innovativeness, a spirit of humility, and a capacity to critically question the status quo; to move beyond business as usual and dare to do things differently, are all required attributes. So, I know that when I look out at you, Im looking at the trail blazers, pace-setters and pioneers that can drive this age of global business, and shape our century, and our world, for good. Sadly, though, our world too often operates in a false dichotomy that separates the bottom line of business from the high-call of doing good. Too often, driving social change is seen as the sole preserve of philanthropists, charities and non-governmental organisations instead of being seen as our common charge. Too often, the transformative agendas are seen as the duty of government and not the responsibility of the global electorate or individual choices.
And within businesses, doing good is a kind of peripheral,
optional concern; the work of conscience is relegated to CSR departments, and it is often not considered core to business culture. We live in an age where being a big profitable enterprise is seen to be incompatible with doing good. Where big businesses have sometimes created big problems rather than being a possible means of positive change. But all of these perspectives or realities of the world and of business are ironic. Because business is, by nature, a powerful force for driving social change. Business is inherently about solving problems and meeting needs and embracing challenges as opportunities. That is what the best businesses do: they find a problem to solve, a need to meet and a gap to fill. They are driven by our demand. They dont exist for business sake and contrary to what some may think, theyre driven by more than the desire to bump up the bottom line. They exist for people. They add value to people. And in the process of solving problems and meeting needs, of filling gaps and adding value, businesses change millions of lives by providing jobs and incomes, dignity and choice to the individuals that they employ, while providing products and services that count, to their customers. Businesses benefit everybody and they are by definition crucial to building sustainable change. So I am glad that today, I get to talk to you - as future international business leaders - about a problem that still needs solving, a need that is not effectively being met and a gap that the world still needs to fill. Across the world, there is an urgent need for universal access to quality, affordable healthcare. Globally, more than six million children die annually before their fifth birthday and of those, four out of every five deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia with children born into poverty being twice as likely to die before the age of five.
Today, only 50% of women in developing regions receive
the recommended amount of health care they need and HIV is still the leading cause of death for women of reproductive age worldwide. In my own country 510 out of every 100,000 mothers lose their lives in pregnancy related complications. In 2014, 20% of children aged 12 - 23 months, had not been fully vaccinated with BCG, measles, pentavalent, polio, and pneumococcal vaccines, nearly 30% had not received all basic vaccinations, and 2% had not received any vaccines at all. Today, preventable and treatable diseases including acute respiratory infections, malaria, and diarrhea continue to be a leading cause of child morbidity and mortality in Kenya. Though there has been tremendous progress in the prevention of new HIV infections among children in Kenya, with 87,000 HIV positive women getting pregnant annually there are 13,000 new HIV infection cases among children every year and 11,000 HIV positive children dying annually due to lack of access to antiretroviral treatments. One of the chief global sustainable development goals with respect to health is achieving universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all. The world has made so much progress in bridging the gap in access to health care, but theres still so much to be done. A world where access to health is exclusive, is a less productive, less efficient, less innovative and less prosperous world. Improving access to quality health care isnt just fundamentally humane, its economically prudent. In this respect, I have spent the last three years doing my part towards working on healthcare issues in Kenya. I truly believe that a healthy nation is everyones businessit requires inclusivity from all sectors.
In 2014 I launched Beyond Zero; an initiative that seeks to
use innovative fundraising methods, to raise capital for the purchase, and distribution of mobile clinics across the country. This initiative supports the governments efforts to make available free maternal health to its citizens. The initiative collaborates with the county governments -similar to your federal government, efforts to offer better health options and bring health closer to its people.
The Beyond Zero campaign is an example of national,
public-private partnership. It is private sector driven and has succeeded because of our partners believe that ensuring human health, is a worthwhile investment. So, if you wonder whether big business make a difference to health issues in Kenya and the world, I am here to tell you it can. And businesses can do more than donate to worthy causes, or partner with Government. Businesses can try create products and services that make a significant impact on health issues in the world. Two businesses in Kenya come to mind as examples of this: Equity Bank and Safaricom, a telecommunications company. Now, a bank and a telecommunications[1] company arent necessarily obvious agents of social change, but both these companies, by focusing on financial inclusion, have empowered poor people to take charge of their health, by enabling them to save, borrow and invest.
So I want to end by just asking each one of you to consider
a simple question: what will you do? How will you disrupt the world and drive change? You have been blessed with incredible resources, and a wealth of knowledge. You have been given much, and much is required of you. I want to end by challenging you to turn your attention to the daunting issues of the 21st century; dare to use all the resources at your disposal, to build sustainable solutions that count for decades to come. Let that, be your legacy.
Thank you for your invitation and thank you very much for your attention.
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Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, The First Lady of The Republic of Kenya During The Handing-Over Ceremony of The 37th Fully- Kitted Beyond Zero Mobile Clinic to Migori County at Uriri Secondary School on 13th April, 2016.
Speech by The First Lady of Kenya, H.E. Margaret Kenyatta During The International Women's Day Celebrations at Kenyatta International Convention Centre, Nairobi On 8th March 2016.
Speech by Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, The First Lady of The Republic of Kenya During The Handing-over Ceremony of The 33rd ‘Beyond Zero’ Mobile Clinic to Mandera County at Geneva Sports Ground on 6th November 2015.