ICN welcomes funding from The BD Foundation to empower nurses across Africa

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is delighted to announce the support of The BD Foundation for the ICN Organizational Development of National Nurses Associations (ODENNA) initiative.

ICN CEO Howard Catton said:

“ODENNA’s central focus is supporting our National Nurses Associations because they are the voice of nursing in their countries, not only in Africa but across the world. NNAs support, advocate and represent nurses on the front lines of care but also bring their experience and leadership to the national level to guide and strengthen our health systems based on equality, fairness and respect. And that is why we are grateful to BD today, for adding their substantial backing to this important initiative.”

The BD Foundation, the philanthropic arm of global medical technology company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), today announced a donation of $360,000 over three years to support ICN’s efforts to empower 21 national nursing associations (NNAs) across Africa and provide leader training, education, mentorship and organisational development to improve nursing practices. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative which convened in New York City, 19-20 September alongside the United Nations General Assembly.

Tony Ezell, president of the North America region for BD and chief marketing officer said, “This commitment from the BD Foundation and collaboration with ICN helps build the infrastructure needed to support nurses in Africa now and in the future. In order to build and retain a resilient nursing workforce, there is an urgent need for investment in training and education particularly in low- and middle-income countries where health care resources are scarce, and nurses are the backbone of health care delivery.”

The primary funder of the ODENNA initiative is Johnson & Johnson Foundation who, in 2021, provided ICN with a generous grant which is fully funding Phase 1 of the project which includes the training of faculty and facilitators from NNAs who will eventually run educational activities in participating countries. The Johnson & Johnson Foundation grant also partially covers Phase 2 and 3 of the project which will see the implementation of the ICN Organizational Assessment Tool, the development by NNAs of plans to address areas identified for improvement, and the establishment of the ICN Leadership For Change (LFC)™ programme in each participating country. Read more about the Johnson & Johnson Foundation grant here.

The ODENNA partnership aims to build stronger and more sustainable nursing associations on the African continent for improved healthcare delivery and health prevention measures. One of the core functions of NNAs is to provide advocacy to influence better health outcomes, whilst building respect, recognition and support for the nursing profession. Strengthening ICN member NNAs to effectively influence and positively impact improvements in healthcare delivery and prevention is essential for ICN’s global voice of nursing to continue being heard and for nurses to be valued as knowledgeable professionals and system navigators.

The scheme is a package which includes the ICN’s LFC™ programme, which prepares nurses with the leadership skills that are required to implement organisational change for the purpose of improving nursing practice and achieving better health outcomes, and twinning of well-established NNAs with less mature associations to enable them to increase their capacity to represent their nurses, yielding mutually beneficial engagement and collaboration.

A local nursing expert, Edna Tallam-Kimaiyo, who is an ICN’s Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI™) alumna from 2018 and is an ICN Certified Global Nurse Consultant, will be the lead facilitator of the project in Africa, with Stella de Sabata, ICN Programme Manager, the overall coordinator of the ODENNA initiative.

Download the press release here

Photo credit: The BD Foundation