Oct. 19, 2019 (ENTEBBE, Uganda): The Senior Regional Programme Coordinator at IGAD Health and Social Development Division, Mrs Fatuma I. Adan, yesterday inaugurated a Validation Workshop for IGAD Nutrition Advocacy Strategy in Entebbe.
July 03, 2019 (DJIBOUTI, Djibouti): On behalf of the regional organisation’s Executive Secretary, the Director of the Health and Social Development Division of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Ms. Fathia A. Alwan, signed a grant agreement with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva on June 26.
UNHCR is the sub recipient for the components of the grant which will be implemented in 22 refugee camps and settlements in Djibouti, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda. It is a 33-month grant with a value of about US$ 2.2 million whereby the effective date of implementation is July 2019 and end date on March 2022.
IGAD along with member states and stakeholders developed a proposal on the multi country TB interventions among refugees in Eastern Africa and submitted it to the Global Fund (GF) on 30 April 2019. The GF Technical Review Panel and Grant Approval Committee found the proposal technically sound and robust, and recommended it for funding. After which the Global Fund approved the US$ 7.5 million proposal on Multi country TB Interventions for Refugees in Eastern Africa.
IGAD and the Global Fund signed the grant agreement mid May 2019. Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affair in Ethiopia (ARRA), the Kenya Red Cross Society and UNHCR ARRA, KRCS and UNHCR will continue to be the sub recipients for the new grant. IGAD signed Principal- Sub recipient grant agreement with ARRA and KRCS and the implementation of the grant in Ethiopia and Kenya has started in April 2019.
The implementation of the first IGAD TB-HIV grant by the Global Fund ended in March 2019 with successful achievements. Along with the Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affair in Ethiopia (ARRA), the Kenya Red Cross Society and UNHCR, the grant was implemented in 49 refugee camps in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
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05 April 2019, KAMPALA (Uganda): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) this morning closed a Knowledge Management (KM) and community of practice workshop on health in Kampala in collaboration with the John Hopkins University’s Knowledge for Health Project (K4Health) that is funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
The KM workshop reviewed and validated the IGAD KM Assessment Report, and also set the base for a KM for Health Strategy and the establishment of a Documentary Repository and Sharing System for health.
One of the main aims of this workshop was to address knowledge management gaps identified during the KM Needs and Gaps assessment that was conducted in August and September 2018. But also, this five-day workshop was an occasion to train the 35 participants drawn from IGAD member states and IGAD secretariat on basic principles, processes and tenets of Knowledge Management (KM).
Ms. Hilina Dejene Desalegne, Monitoring and Evaluation Expert at Policy, Plan, Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate-Federal Ministry of Health Ethiopia found the training sessions on how to use knowledge management for health very useful. “We were already using knowledge management in a somehow traditional way, but starting from now on I will use and apply the different steps and sessions I learnt here to my day-to-day activity to improve generation, collection, analysis, synthesis and sharing of health data from national level to the sub-national level”, she said.
“The uniqueness of this training is astounding to me because in a such short-period, it made me understand that “an effective KM for health” is the combination of using/learning from decades of published knowledge in KM field, the application of KM best practice tools and the utilization of technology for real time results in a systematic way”, according to Abdullahi Ismael, Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of health of Somalia
One of the trainers, Cheryl Lettenmaier – Kampala-based Regional Representative of The Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, said her satisfaction to see very lively participants and did contribute a lot to the training, the review of the summary report on the IGAD Health Information and KM Needs, as well as to the initiation of the KM for health strategy.
In her closing remarks, Fatuma Adan on behalf of the Director of health and social Development Division, thanked Member States and IGAD Secretariat staff for their stewardship in putting together the draft vision, goals and objectives that will be incorporated onto the draft of a Regional Knowledge Management for Health Strategy. “Another key success was the establishment of a community of practice on knowledge management for health, a WhatsApp group and folders in the Google drive”, she said. She encouraged Member States to actively participate in the KM for Health WhatsApp group in order to finalize the KM for Health Strategy and the KM assessment report.
She also noted that member states and the IGAD secretariat were trained on the basics on knowledge management using a roadmap developed by Knowledge Management for Health project (www.kmtraining.org). The tools in this website are available for use by member states in establishing KM practices in their countries. Participants were encouraged to use the tools to establish systematic structures for KM for Health in their countries.
In conclusion, IGAD committed to continue with resource mobilization on behalf of member states in order institutionalize KM practices in every programmatic activity.
Related story
IGAD COUNTRIES TO SET UP KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM FOR HEALTH
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IGAD Health and Social Development Division convened the first joint review meeting on the IGAD/GF TB HIV grant with the participation of Health sector stakeholders and refuge health partners in the IGAD member states during 11th -13th February in Djibouti. The joint review meeting provided to all stakeholders an opportunity to deliberate and exchange on the challenges and achievements made for the first year of the grant implementation.
29-11-2017, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) resource mobilization event for the IGAD Regional Cancer Center of Excellence (RCCE) was hosted by H.E. Abdullah Alarjani, the Ambassador of the Royal Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ( KSA) to Ethiopia at his residence in the evening of the 28th November.
(30-10-2017 - Addis Ababa) Experts from IGAD Member States are meeting in Addis Ababa to start the process developing the IGAD strategy on HIV, TB and Malaria. The strategy aims at providing integrated framework for regional cooperation and intervention inline with the four IGAD priority areas of Policy Development, Knowledge and Information Sharing, Capacity Building and Science and Technology.
18-09-2017, Kampala (Uganda): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) this morning inaugurated the Decision Making Point Meeting of the IGAD Regional Action through Action (RAD) Initiative in Kampala during an opening ceremony presided over by Dr Ahmed Hassan, Health Coordinator representing IGAD Executive Secretary, Dr. Allan Muruta, Assistant Commissioner, Disease Control-Ministry of Health of Uganda, Ms Andrea Long-Wagar, Senior Infectious Disease Advisor- United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Washington (DC), and Mr Pascal Mwele, Nairobi-based RAD Regional Programme Director-BroadReach.
03-08-2017, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) today convened a meeting to sensitize development partners on the need for the region to establish a regional Medicines Regulation & Harmonization (MRH) Programme. The Acting Director of Health & Social Development, Ms Fathia Alwan, co-chaired the inauguration session along with the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) of Italy to Ethiopia and Chair of the IGAD Partners Forum (IPF), Giuseppe Coppola, with Dr Apollo Muhairwe of the World Bank-Uganda, and the Coordinator of the World Health Organisation’s Regulatory Systems Strengthening-Geneva, Dr. Michael Ward, at the high table.
This one-day meeting between IGAD development partners and Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) from IGAD Member States follows the 3rd Meeting of the latter held on August 1st and 2nd and which was aimed at, among other items on the agenda, readying an MRH project proposal.
Thus, the goals of this Donor Sensitization Meeting were to:
Ms Fathia Alwan, in her opening remarks, linked the circulation of “Sub-standard and Falsified medical products and illegal trade in medicines in the region” to the movement of people. She also noted that “the presence of unregulated Sub-standard and Falsified medical products and illegal trade in medicines circulating within IGAD member states is a serious public health threat which must be prevented and controlled in order to spur confidence” before calling on the partners to support the initiative.
DCM Coppola informed the audience that the IGAD Partners Forum, that Italy was chairing, was made up of 27 states. He also acknowledged the other partners in attendance. “We welcome this initiative which is another key step to regional integration demonstrated by IGAD”, he said. He also added that IPF members will be duly informed an sensitized, while ways of mobilizing support will be considered.
Dr Apollo Muhairwe seized the opportunity to reiterate “that WHO will continue providing technical guidance and support to the IGAD MRH initiative, and also call upon AMRH partners; members of the IGAD Partners Forum (IPF) and other stakeholders to provide financial and technical support for the implementation of the proposal”.
Dr. Michael Ward highlighted that “the most challenging stage” was ahead. “Ensuring the continuity of the support from member states and mobilization of the financial support for the implementation of proposal are vital”, he said.
The meeting closed on a positive note with follow up pledges.
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Related story: IGAD SEEKS SUPPORT FOR THE FIRST EVER MEDICINES REGULATION REGIONAL INITIATIVE
01-08-2017, Addis Ababa (Ethiopia): The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), inaugurated the 3rd Meeting of Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities (NMRAs) at a session presided over by Dr. Eshetu Kebede from the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia, and in the presence of the Reproductive Maternal Child Health Coordinator-IGAD, Dr. Fatuma Adan, Dr Paul Mainuka of the World Health Organization (WHO)-Addis Ababa, and Dr Apollo Muhairwe of the World Bank-Uganda.
IGAD has embarked on developing a proposal aimed at improving access and availability of medicines through harmonization of regulatory systems, guidelines and processes among IGAD-NMRA’s in line with the Addis Ababa Call for Action of August 2015 and Khartoum Declaration of April 2016. Regulatory harmonization will achieve good control of pharmaceutical standards without impeding or obstructing the movement of pharmaceutical products within the region.
This 3rd Meeting of Heads of National Medicine Regulatory Authorities thus focuses on approving the IGAD Medicine Regulatory Harmonization (IGAD-MRH) Programme Proposal (to be submitted to potential development partners on August 3rd in Addis Ababa). It is also an opportunity for participants to validate and endorse the establishment of governance structure for the IGAD MRH Programme as well as the Terms of Reference of the IGAD MRH Expert Committees.
Dr. Esheteu Kebede, speaking for the Minister of Health of Ethiopia, noted that “the global illicit trade of fraudulent, sub-standard and otherwise dangerous medicines” was getting “a major regional challenge with its associated health problems” for the populations. He thus called, once again, on “international partners for perceived assistance on this delicate regional initiative”.
Dr Fatuma Adan, speaking on behalf of the Acting Director of Health & Social Development for IGAD Executive Secretary, highlighted, exception made of Kenya and Uganda which benefit from an East African Community MRH Project, the deficiency of regional support to IGAD Member States NMRAs due to lack of funds. She nevertheless pointed out to the fact that IGAD, with support from WHO and the World Bank, IGAD has come a long with the MRH Project Proposal being reviewed and adopted during these two-day long meeting.
Dr Mainuka declared that he was confident that the regional project proposal being discussed will “address the regulatory challenges, the proposed strategies and will further provide the right solutions”.
Dr Apollo lauded IGAD for the “development of the IGAD MRH Dashboard which enables sharing of publically available information on medicines in the region”. “NMRAs can use the platform to conduct a number of activities including information on status of registration of medicinal products”, he said.
The African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Initiative has achieved a considerable harmonisation in several Regional Economic Communities on the African continent. However, there has been no harmonization initiative in the IGAD region so far. Currently, there is no funding to support medicine regulatory harmonization initiative in IGAD region; thus, the need to establish a structure and support this collaborative initiative in IGAD region. It is in this respect that IGAD called on a Donors Sensatisation Meeting to be held on August 3rd in Addis Ababa.
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