To the Muso Community,
I write to you today with exciting news: Muso and the government of Côte d’Ivoire have formed a new partnership in service of their national community health system.
More than a decade ago, Muso began our work in Mali around a singular commitment: health care is for everyone.
This commitment grew out of conversations with patients who, in the era of extraordinary clinical innovations, found their access to these innovations blocked at every turn: by distance, by poor infrastructure, and by point-of-care fees.
Today, the communities we serve in Mali are pioneering a way to end this injustice: research published last year found that Muso’s peri-urban sites have had a 10-fold increase in access to care, achieving rates of child mortality lower than any country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Building on this research, Mali’s President has announced a historic national health reform that will significantly improve access to care across the country.
Yet these inequities reach far beyond Mali’s borders. Last year, more than 5 million children under five died globally, most because they could not access the care they needed in time. Combatting this injustice and ending these preventable deaths will require a global reach. It will take all of us, giving everything we can, to realize healthcare for everyone in our lifetimes.
In the face of persistently high child and maternal mortality rates, the government of Côte d’Ivoire has launched a bold strategy to build a new national community health system for their 24 million people. Muso has committed to serve alongside them. Our partnership has grown from a shared belief that patients deserve evidence-based health care systems – where the right care is delivered to the right patient at the right time, no matter where they are.
Through our new partnership, we will embed technical assistance specialists from the Muso team within Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Health. Over the next 12 months, our team will support the success of the national program using research based-strategies. Read more about this new collaboration here (et ici en français).
As countries from around the world gathered last month at the 74th United Nations General Assembly to deliberate on Universal Health Care, one thing became clear: we have much work ahead to build health systems that truly deliver justice to patients fighting to access care.
We are grateful for your support and solidarity as we take this next step with the government of Côte d’Ivoire, pursuing the path toward healthcare for everyone.
With gratitude,
Ari and the Muso Team