OPINION: Historic health plan led by Africans for Africans

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

On a dusty road in Ghana’s bustling capital Accra, history was made recently.In a landmark first, world-renowned African health experts, professionals and academics converged under a single, newly-formed health organisation, African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth), to map out solutions to tackle the continent’s health challenges – led by Africans, for Africans.

It was a defining moment as African health solutions have almost always been guided by Western experts.

The continent’s leading health figures debated and discussed a continent-wide campaign to tackle key bottlenecks to health solutions in Africa. At the heart of this was the clarion call to African governments to prioritise health care in their countries, to do more to retain local health professionals and curb the exodus of their skills to foreign markets, and for more investment in supporting African health research to ensure locally-relevant- and- led health solutions.

“An African-led think tank in health is the game-changer for the continent,” Ghanaian-born AFREhealth chairperson, Professor Peter Donkor, told delegates.

Source: IOL News (link opens in a new window)

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Health Care
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public health