Philips and ICRC want to change the world

Another year, another chance to improve lives around the world. 

This year’s Social Good Summit, held at the historic 92nd Street Y in New York, was a whirlwind of inspiration. A full roster of panelists included changemakers, global citizens, and progressive thought leaders from around the world. Collectively, they inspired a packed audience with ideas on some of the tangible changes we can make to the world around us in our lifetime. 

Held during the United Nations General Assembly week, Social Good Summit attendees met to discuss the state of the world today and how it could look by the year 2030. 

Among the many companies in attendance was health technology company Philips, who discussed the work it does with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). While there, Philips also unveiled a new consumer initiative called Better Me, Better World.

Better Me, Better World provides consumers with personal benefits while giving them the opportunity to help prioritize the causes that Philips will support through the Philips Foundation in 2018. Addressing health topics that range from community access to healthcare and first aid training, to ensuring healthy lifestyles for children, are at the heart of the Philips Foundation’s mission to reduce health inequality through meaningful innovation. It does this by deploying the expertise, knowledge, and innovative skills of Philips in collaborative projects with humanitarian organizations — such as the ICRC — to design, adopt, and deploy solutions that are sustainable and inclusive.

The Chairman of The Philips Foundation, Ronald de Jong, and President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, took the stage at SGS to talk about their partnership and share a very practical example of how they were working together to improve the lives of women and children in Africa. 

“The world is becoming a more complex place every day,” said de Jong. “We need to work together with parties who have a common understanding of what it takes to make a meaningful difference to people by 2030.” 

The duo premiered a video on stage that focused on how Philips delivered low-tech, high impact healthcare innovation for pregnant women in Africa and Southeast Asia, known as The High Risk Pregnancy Toolkit. 

The stats in the video weren’t easy to swallow: 160,000 African women die in childbirth each year, and 300,000 babies die during labor. Composed of instructional cards and a double-headed, battery free, fetoscope (fetal stethoscope), the High Risk Pregnancy Toolkit will assist healthcare workers in detecting the signs of at-risk pregnancies in women living in remote and fragile environments. The toolkit is being deployed by the ICRC to 75,000 women in up to eight African countries.

In 2014, Philips pledged to support the United Nation’s Every Woman Every Child initiative, committing to improve the lives of at least 100 million women and children in Africa and South East Asia by 2025. This year, Philips is increasing that commitment to 300 million people in underserved markets, thereby recognizing the often critical needs of women and children in many communities. Compounding this need is the added burden that arises from the increase in non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in communities already struggling without adequate access to healthcare.

SGS was a day packed with impressive and important goals — and actionable solutions for helping citizens around the world. Want to become part of those solutions? Choose the causes that The Philips Foundation should focus on in 2018 and become part of a better tomorrow.

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