OSAKA, JAPAN & CAMBRIDGE, MASS.-- September 20, 2023 -- Takeda today announced five new partnerships to its Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program, which contribute to strengthening health systems in low- and middle-income countries. The new partnerships bring its total contributions to JPY 24.2 billion (Approx. USD 167.5 million) across 29 long-term partnerships. Takeda’s workforce is an integral part of the annual decision-making process as over 24,500 purpose-led employees participated in the selection of the five new partnerships. Takeda expects that Global CSR Program’s new five partnerships will bring its reach to 25.2 million people in 92 countries by 2028.

“Our 242-year-old heritage has taught us that creating sustainable positive impact not only takes time but also requires us to constantly adapt and look to the future. There are no quick fixes to global health challenges, which are complex, multi-dimensional and context dependent. While each of these partnerships will support health systems strengthening in unique and innovative ways, there are two common threads: an equity lens focused on marginalized groups and a systems approach prioritizing lasting outcomes over quick wins,” says Takako Ohyabu, Takeda’s chief global corporate affairs and sustainability officer. “These partnerships explicitly target marginalized and/or vulnerable groups who lack quality health services and access to essential medicines, whether that is due to conflict, climate change, natural disasters, or socio-economic reasons. We take a long-term view, working with partners who have local knowledge and ownership, adopting a systems approach to develop resilient and equitable health systems which are also responsive to climate change.”

Takeda’s commitments to these new partners in FY2023 include:

· JPY 834 million (Approx. USD 5.8 million) to Society for Family Health, Rwanda to expand access to quality healthcare in remote and hard-to-reach communities in Rwanda through the establishment of 20 second-generation health posts under a public-private-community-partnership model. The program introduces new infrastructure, empowers long-term local leadership, strengthens the provision of comprehensive care and empowers the health workforce. It will also leverage technology to improve data-driven decision-making to scale improved health outcomes across the country.
· JPY 1,146 million (Approx. USD 7.9 million) to Relief International to improve access to essential medicines and medical supplies in communities devastated by conflict, climate change and disaster in Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar and Syria. This program will strengthen capabilities of local suppliers to generate reliable supply chains of quality essential medicines, benefitting local and humanitarian communities’ access and informing scalable global solutions.
· JPY 1,048 million (Approx. USD 7.3 million) to Mercy Corps to help climate-fragile communities save lives, improve health, and build climate resiliency for over 3 million people through the addition of Resilience Hubs in Jamaica, U.S. Virgin Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Lucia, as part of their Caribbean Resilience Initiative. As natural disasters become more frequent and devastating, the program will help communities prepare for the worst by activating immediate access to life-saving information, portable water, energy, and health and social services, while also directly informing the creation of a scalable resilience model to benefit this region and beyond.
· JPY 671 million (Approx. USD 4.6 million) to Partners In Health to elevate and equip 3,000 nurses and midwives in Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone to become recognized leaders in the areas of health system administration and health policy. By promoting more diverse and equitable leadership across gender, socioeconomic, and racial lines, the program will improve the recruitment and retention of frontline health workforce, improve health outcomes, and realize sustainable health gains.
· JPY 793 million (Approx. USD 5.5 million) to University of Nairobi to create a pioneering, public health-focused machine learning and data science training program to strengthen the leadership pipeline and impact of women to improve health in their communities. The program will train and empower 800 underprivileged girls and young women across 6 regions in Kenya. By cultivating a diversified pool of data scientists, it will contribute to reducing biases and gender gaps in public health data and artificial intelligence and create a model for scale across the African continent.

The new partners shared:

· “Our partnership with Takeda signifies shared commitment to expanding access to quality healthcare and improving well-being of Rwandans. Together, we are making a profound impact, building a healthier and brighter future for vulnerable groups,” said Manasseh Gihana Wandera, executive director of Society for Family Health, Rwanda.
· “Relief International’s new partnership with Takeda will ensure the timely and reliable provision of essential medicines and quality medical supplies in Afghanistan, Yemen, Myanmar, and Syria. Together, we will contribute to saving lives in four of the most challenging places globally and reduce the carbon footprint of our humanitarian supply chains,” said Craig Redmond, CEO of Relief International
· “Now is the time to take bold action to help communities adapt in the face of a worsening climate crisis, more frequent and intense extreme weather events. Our partnership with Takeda enables Mercy Corps to bring our Resilience Hub model to support more communities across the Caribbean to better prepare for, survive, and recover from natural disasters and build a more resilient future,” said Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps
· “By elevating the voices of nurses and midwives—the backbone of the global health workforce, Partner In Health’s partnership with Takeda will transform hierarchies to include nurses and midwives in decision making. Greater gender and professional equity in leadership, retention of frontline staff, and expert insight from the bedside will catalyze stronger health systems and better, more equitable health outcomes,” said Sheila Davis, CEO of Partners In Health
· “University of Nairobi is excited to collaborate with Takeda to lead in the cultivation of a diverse, gender-balanced pool of data scientists by empowering and training underprivileged women so that we can address biases in public health data and machine learning and achieve better health outcomes,” said Prof Stephen Kiama, vice-chancellor of the University of Nairobi

Since its launch in 2016, Takeda’s Global CSR Program has contributed to strengthening health systems including the following, which are informed by WHO’s Health System Strengthening Building Blocks:

· Service Delivery and Access to Essential Medicines: Directly benefited more than 11.2 million people, by improving accessibility, coverage and quality of service delivery e.g., screening, referrals and follow ups; immunized over 4.6 million children against preventable diseases such as measles; and provided more than 2.3 million community members with targeted health education including on nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and sexual and reproductive health.
· Health Workforce: Developed knowledge, skills, motivation, and deployment of health workforce, by training over 68,000 qualified health professionals and community health workers responsible for organizing and delivering health services as well as those who do not deliver services directly but are essential to the performance of health systems such as health supply chain managers and health information system administrators.
· Health Information Systems: Developed, enhanced, or implemented 49 digital solutions, platforms, or tools to support data-informed health planning and health decision-making.
· Leadership and Governance: Developed or enhanced 285 strategic plans and policies, which are linked to national and local needs and priorities to ensure local ownership and making it likely that innovative solutions are being sustained and scaled.