This week our colleague Henry Tumwijukye attended the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) 2023 in Kigali, Rwanda. The conference brought together Africa’s innovators, researchers, policy makers and health workers around the topic of “Resilient Health Systems for Africa: Re-envisioning the Future Now”.
Henry attended interesting sessions, including the plenary opening session “One Africa, One Economy for Health: A Coming Together of Nations” and several parallel sessions on key topics related to health care system strengthening and innovation.
In the panel discussion “Building Resilient Healthcare Systems from Prevention to Care, and Beyond” Health[e]Foundation’s LUCY app was presented by Priscilla Ngunju from Amref International University as one of the examples of building resilient health care systems. Amref and Health[e]Foundation are partners within the Tekeleza project, in which the LUCY maternal and neonatal health app is selected as one of the evidence-based digital interventions to support the maternal, neonatal and child health service delivery spectrum in Kenya.
Henry’s key take-aways from AHAIC 2023 are that there is a growing realization of the need for Pan-Africanization of the ecosystem around health care systems in Africa and the need for African governments to invest more into health and health care systems as set out in the Abuja declaration continues to be a high priority. There was further a wish expressed during the conference to route for all entities involved in the health sector to collaborate and raise one voice when it comes to advocacy for funding. Finally, digitalization of the health care systems in Africa to improve efficiency and increase reach cuts across the entire spectrum of the meeting sessions.
We want to thank Henry for attending AHAIC 2023 and sharing his experiences and key take-aways with us!
