Nigeria: Partnership for Health II

Since the very successful first Nigeria: Partneship for Health Conference in 2008, we have receieved several enquiries on when the next one will hold. Apparently colleagues found immense value in meeting to share ideas on how to engage and contribute to the Nigerian health sector. 

It is our pleasure to invite you to the Nigeria: Partnership for Health Conference in 2010 II

We have another fascinating line up of 8 speakers that will be sharing with us their experience with the health sector in Nigeria one issues form the public health policy to clinical care. The theme of this years conference will be:

Moving to sustained collaboration

This conference focus on how sustainable collaboration between Nigerian health professionals working in the West and Nigerians and Institutions in Nigeria can lead to health gains for the Nigerian people. We will seek to highlight what we or others are doing to engage with the major health issues facing us both in preventive and curative medicine. This will include activity by government, non-governmental organisations, the private sector and individuals. We will feedback on progress since the last conference in 2008 both in terms of progress we have achieved and progress by the other partners at the conference. 

This conference will focus on governments, individuals and groups that have engaged in collaborative projects and programmes in Nigeria, the initiation process, the challenges they have faced in growing and sustaining this, sharing experience and inspiring others. These collaborative projects or partnerships will be related to clinical care, research, health policy formulation, training or teaching.

The overarching goal of this conference is to continue the work started by the 2008 conference; building enthusiasm and confidence in opportunities in the Nigerian health sector, to nurture new relationships and inspire action. It will be an opportunity for us to learn from others that have initiated links, partnerships and networks and share our diverse experience on how these have worked.  Nigerians are generally a passionate people. Through this conference we want to create a forum for the exchange of ideas that can change attitudes, lives and ultimately, Nigeria; a community of enthusiasts to engage with ideas and each other. 

Date: 

November 6 2010 - 9 am 

Venue: 

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

27 Sussex Place, 

Regent's Park, 

London, NW1 4RG.

Register here!

Why organise a conference on Nigerian health….in London?

This piece was first publised on the BMJ blog

by ike anya and chikwe ihekweazu
A quiet milestone passed in May this year, when Nigerians marked nine years of unbroken civilian government, the longest period in the 48 years since independence. A year earlier, the peaceful handover of power from one civilian president to another was another significant milestone. This period has coincided with an era of unprecedented high oil prices, Nigeria’s major source of income.

The past nine years of relative peace and democratic governance have seen changes in the economy with steady growth, large reduction in external debt, and structural reforms of the financial and telecommunications sectors.

Apart from increased access to mobile phones, these changes have had little impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

From a health perspective, there are still many challenges. The health systems are weak, immunisation coverage is poor, and prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) are remote.

With a population of an estimated 140 million, improving health in Nigeria is a key step towards achieving global health goals like eradicating polio, achieving the Millennium Developmental Goals (MDGs), preparing for pandemic flu and achieving universal access to antiretrovirals for HIV/AIDS.

Perhaps because of our large population, Nigerians can be found all over the world. Meeting Nigerians working in public health at international conferences and meetings was the stimulus for founding the Nigerian Public Health Network a few years ago. The network now consists of over a hundred members working all over the world, including in Nigeria; and in our electronic conversations, it emerged that there were a large number of initiatives aiming to improve health in Nigeria, a broad range of expertise and skills, and a keen interest in engaging in the onerous task of improving health in Nigeria.

The large number of Nigerian health professionals working abroad and the reasons for this are well known. Our study of three graduating classes from a Nigerian medical school indicated that nearly half were living abroad ten years after graduation, with the majority based in the UK, the US and Ireland. While a handful of colleagues keep seeking opportunities to work in Nigeria, many have become disillusioned with Nigeria, frustrated by bureaucracy of engagement.

On our frequent visits back to Nigeria, we also sought to engage with policy makers who often spoke of their hopes of engaging the vast health diaspora. Their attempts to do this yielded little fruit as colleagues often returned to Nigeria in small teams for medical missions all over the country with little cohesion in planning or implementation.

A number of UK institutions and donor organizations are also active in Nigeria. Money, energy and air miles are spent in efforts to support Nigeria in providing health for her people.

With all these in mind, we felt that it would be important to bring together these groups to understand policy initiatives and the priorities of the Nigerian government and where each group can help. We felt it was time to start working together, as Nigerian health professionals in the UK and elsewhere and with our friends and partners. It was time to pull together from the same end of the rope.

Why has health slipped down the order of priorities in Nigeria?

Is this a sustainable state of affairs for the country with the largest population on the African continent, the 8th largest crude oil producer in the world?

Most importantly; what can we do about it?

To answer these important questions we have called a conference

Nigeria: Partnership for Health

which will hold at UCL, London on 22 November.

This is being convened by the Nigerian Public Health Network, in association with the Medical Association of Nigerian Specialists and General Practitioners, the Tropical Health and Education Trust, University College London and AfricaRecruit.

Together, perhaps we can spark the drive to awaken the sleeping giant. Perhaps Nigeria can avoid being the last country to eradicate polio. Perhaps we can improve on our health sector ranking as the 187th out of 191 by WHO. Perhaps we can ask why our politicians have to be flown abroad for the slightest ailments and why our healthcare workers continue to leave. Perhaps this conference can help put these difficult questions on the table, and suggest a credible, pragmatic way forward. Perhaps we can achieve a re-energised Nigerian health workforce in the diaspora together with our friends and partners ready to re-engage with Nigeria.

PERHAPS...you should be there...details @ www.nigeriahealth2008.org

This piece was first publised on the BMJ blog

Dear Colleague,

Re: Conference: “Nigeria: Partnership for Health”

Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to where we can see an intricately interconnected world. We invite you to a conference aimed primarily at the process of questioning, reflection and learning; to generate and share information that is relevant to our interests in the health of Nigerians.

We therefore have the pleasure of inviting you to this important conference on health in Nigeria holding at the University College London on Saturday, 22^nd November 2008.

This conference will bring together Nigerians working in the health sector in the Diaspora including doctors, pharmacists, nurses etc as well as important stakeholders and our partners in the health arena that are based in the UK to focus on the following objectives.

To create a forum where Nigerian professionals working in health roles in the UK and partners working on health issues in Nigeria meet with the Federal Ministry of Health and its partners to explore opportunities of working together for the benefit of the health of Nigerians.

To hear from senior government officials on their priorities for health and health care are as well as their strategies in confronting these in order to identify ways in supporting them in achieving these.

To identify and publicize the role of links, partnerships and research collaborations in improving the health of Nigerians.

The conveners of the conference are:

• The Medical Association of Nigerian Specialists and General Practitioners in the British Isles. (The umbrella organisation of all Nigerian doctors in the UK)

• The Nigerian Public Health Network. (a network of Nigerians working in different public health roles; policy, operational and in the academia around the world)

• Tropical Health and Education Trust (A UK Charity, with strong Government support to support partnerships between health institutions in developing countries and their counterparts in the UK)

• University College London: Institute for Global Health (a hub bringing together UCL’s immense multidisciplinary wealth of intellectual capital and international collaborations to provide innovative, workable solutions to global health at scale)

• Africa Recruit (a programme plan of action taken to build robust an enduring productive capacity throughout the continent)

We sincerely hope you will find the time to share this experience with us.

Register now as there are limited places available.