Dear HIFA colleagues,
The Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2023 has just concluded in Kigali, Rwanda [ https://ahaic.org/ ]. Under the theme 'Resilient Health Systems for Africa: Re-envisioning the Future Now', the conference convened 'Africa’s top thought leaders, political figures, innovators, researchers, policy makers, health workers and community mobilisers for dialogue and action aimed at mainstreaming climate discourse into health policy conversations, and vice versa'. Below are quotes from the conference distributed by Knowledge Success, and a comment from me.
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https://info.knowledgesuccess.org/ahaic2023-thank-you-for-attending
"Communities are at the center of everything we do. We need to translate what we say so that communities understand it..so they can make the right decisions."
-Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa
"Packaging of SRHR messages has been perceived and designed for married people. Young people should be at the forefront of messages, and shouldn't be ignored."
-AHAIC Parallel Session on Access to SRHR Services
"Data needs to be packaged and disseminated in a way that policy makers can digest the information to make decisions related to climate and health."
-Dr. Modi Mwatsama, Head of Capacity and Field Development for Climate and Health, Wellcome Trust
"We need to document the success stories on the impact of women leaders, to increase the visibility of their actions that empower change in women and girls."
-Dr. Norah Obudho, East Africa Program Director, WomenLift Health
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Comments (NPW):
1. I like this approach to disseminating the flavour of a conference, using quotations from the conference itself.
2. Discussion forums such as HIFA can add value to international health conferences by providing a platform for discussion in the weeks before and after the event. If you are planning an international conference, contact me to explore possibilities: neil@hifa.org
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
