Panelists on the Urban Health plenary at the BPF

HEARD partners from the East, Central and Southern Africa (ECSA) region, including – Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Infectious Diseases Institute (ID), TAMASHA and a local URC technical consultant—presented at the Forum.  All presentations can be found here.

The Executive Director of TAMASHA, Mr. Churchill Shakim (see his spotlight here), gave a keynote presentation on Governance and Equity-Oriented Policies for Urban Health, which set the stage by overviewing the key factors and realities facing the urban poor in East Africa and the need for governments and development partners to act now.

Dr. Ester Elisaria from IHI and Dr. Jane Wanyama from IDI underscored the need for partnership and evidence to inform action around addressing the needs of the urban poor.  Their presentation on the HEARD Project’s Three Country Urban Health Assessment and Implementation Science Collaboration Urban Health in East Africa, formally launched the Assessment.  ECSA-HC, which is part of the Collaboration, will host a workshop to introduce and validate the Assessment findings on the fringes of the 2019 Best Practices Forum.

Dorothy Temu Usiri, URC consultant, presents on RMC

In addition to the urban health contributions, URC consultant, Ms. Dorothy Temu-Usiri gave a presentation on Generating Evidence through Implementation Science to Institutionalize Respectful Maternity Care. This presentation built upon a recommendation from a previous Best Practices Forum regarding the need for implementation science to advance respectful care in Member States.  Further, Dr. Fatuma Manzi presented on IHI’s use of quality improvement approaches to improve maternal health in Tanzania and achieve universal health coverage.