Africa Health Agenda International Conference 2021
Theme: Decade for Action: Driving Momentum to Achieve UHC in Africa

8th – 10th March 2021   |  14:00 – 18:00 EAT

March 8th – 10th

NO TRAVEL NEEDED

Engaging Plenary Sessions

High Level Roundtables

Learn and Network

Health Research and Resources

About Event

AHAIC 2021 is an African-led biennial global health convening hosted by Amref Health Africa, a leading health development organisation in Africa founded in 1957. This year, the virtual conference is co-convened by Africa CDC, Roche, Takeda Pharmaceuticals and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA).

The conference brings together diverse stakeholders to accelerate progress toward Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and collectively chart a course forward by highlighting and seeking to address Africa’s most pressing health challenges. To inspire greater commitment and action, the conference will spotlight key health issues on the continent, and showcase how new research, innovation and political commitments can solve those challenges to advance UHC.

Highlights from the AHAIC 2019
Conference held in Rwanda



Co-conveners



Gold Sponsors



Silver Sponsors




CSO Sponsors



Content Contributors



Exhibitors



Media Partners

Why should you register for AHAIC 2021

Attending and participating in AHAIC 2021 will provide unique opportunities to connect, learn, empower and transform by giving attendees access to Africa’s biggest virtual health conference. This platform will offer both speakers and audiences a chance to address the challenges faced by Africa’s health sector, and to explore opportunities to advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC) across the continent. Participants will have free virtual access to compelling sessions featuring thought leaders and change makers, explore themes that meaningfully reflect the unique African health context, enjoy opportunities to network with peers, and learn and access resources from some of the biggest decision-makers in health on the continent.

Who should attend

The conference will bring together a diverse group of subject matter experts and stakeholders from multiple sectors, including medical practitioners, researchers, scientists, financiers/donors, development partners, political and governmnet leaders, private sector players, civil society, community health workers, youth, health advocates and more. With a focus on presenting creative ideas, fostering multi-sectoral partnerships, and championing health leadership and accountability, AHAIC 2021 will be an inclusive health conference that will spotlight diverse and dynamic voices.

Agenda


Monday, 8 March 2021

2:00pm – 2:30pm EAT

2:30pm – 3:00pm EAT

Fireside Chat: Politics for Good - Leading the UHC Agenda with Conviction

The fireside chat will be an informal discussion between African Ministers of Health, who have stood tall in the face of adversity and set out on paths that few others would have the courage to take. It will feature inspirational leaders in conversation, providing a platform to share experiences and learnings of advancing the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) agenda, inspire participants, and set the scene for the plenaries and sessions to follow. 

3:00pm – 3:50pm EAT

Roundtable: Launch of the AHAIC Report on the State of UHC in Africa

Prof. Edwine Barasa
To ensure that Africa is on track in progressing towards the achievement of UHC targets by 2030, Amref Health Africa has established an independent commission tasked with reviewing progress and providing recommendations on leadership, accountability, technology/innovation, and health security, to help guide the continent towards these targets. As part of its mandate, the AHAIC Commission on the State of UHC in Africa will share a State of UHC in Africa Report, which will map the progress of African countries towards their UHC goals. The report will also reflect on successes, barriers and lessons learned on the journey towards providing equitable access, quality health care and financial protection in Africa. This session will feature an opening video , followed by a moderated roundtable, where Commissioners will share and discuss the findings of the report.

3:50pm – 4:00pm EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

4:00pm – 5:00pm EAT

Plenary 1: Leadership for Change: Africa's Journey to UHC

Dr. Ladi Hameed

A health care physician who has worked extensively in both the public and private health care systems in Nigeria, Dr. Hameed's areas of interest are health systems strengthening and capability development for workers in the health care sector. Before becoming the General Manager for Roche in Nigeria, Dr Hameed was the head of Medical Affairs for Roche in sub-Saharan Africa where he worked with stakeholders across the region on policy development and improving patient journeys in different disease areas.


Dr. Angela Gichaga

Dr. Angela Gichaga is a public and social sector enthusiast with experience working across civil service, consulting, and NGOs and academia. She is an executive coach, human capital and leadership development advisor with regional and global expertise, as well as an exceptional track record of optimizing performance. Angela runs her tailor made Pathway to Parity programme to empower women and young people in the workplace and society. She now serves developing country Ministries of Health and Ministries of Finance globally, in building resilient and sustainably financed primary and community health systems as CEO of the Financing Alliance for Health. Angela completed her undergraduate degree in Medicine, Masters in Health Economics and Policy and Fellowship in Public Sector Management and has served as a frontline clinician, health administrator, policy maker, academic and consultant. Angela served the MOH Kenya as a District Medical Officer of Health (DMOH) and a hospital in charge (MEDSUP) in both Meru and Garbatulla, leading ~150 multi-disciplinary team members through coordinating strategic planning, resource mobilization, service delivery, recruitment, monitoring and capacity building.

She then joined the MOH HQ, where she supported health financing, co-developed national strategies and prepared reports on the country’s health achievements.  Angela was humbled to receive the Australian Leadership Awards for Africa (2012) and the President Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship (2014) in recognition of her exemplary leadership within the civil service and operational track record of excellence in achieving results. She was named one of Fortune's Worlds Greatest Leaders in 2018 and an Archbishop Tutu Leadership fellow in 2019. From civil service, she then joined McKinsey & Company’s Africa Delivery Hub (ADH) working on socio-economic and development issues in Africa before transitioning into her role at the Financing Alliance for Health. She also serves on the Global Board of Population Services International that operates in 46 countries globally.


Helga Fogstad

Helga Fogstad is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). Strongly committed to human rights, public health and gender issues, Ms. Fogstad has extensive experience in forging partnerships for the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents. She is a health economist with more than 30 years of public health experience, which includes developing countries at the sub-national, national and global levels.  Prior to PMNCH, Ms. Fogstad was the Director of the Department of Global Health, Education and Research at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), where she guided the rapid scale-up of proven cost-effective interventions focused on the health MDGs for women and children. In this capacity, she was actively engaged in political mobilization and advocacy initiatives, including the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health. Helga continues to be involved on many Boards and committees as an active advocate and influencer in the global health sector.


Dr. Roger Kamba

In 2019, Dr. Roger Kamba was nominated by the DRC President, H.E. Felix Tshisekedi, as the Special Adviser to the President for UHC. In this role, he is responsible for the coordination of all state and private actors involved in the establishment of UHC in the DRC and the development and implementation of The DRC’s UHC strategic plans. Dr. Kamba was nominated by President Felix Tshisekedi as the COVID-19 Task Force Coordinator in 2020.


COVID-19 is an acute reminder of what is at stake if we don’t achieve UHC. Africa is at a crucial juncture where the region is grappling with inadequate health systems and insufficient funds for health care to cater to its population’s needs. Adding to this is the impact of a crippling pandemic that has presented the region with the combined challenges of social and economic recovery and highlighted the urgent leadership needed to solve the continent’s most complex health challenges. This session will bring together health leaders from across the continent for thought-provoking discussions on how they see themselves shaping the UHC agenda in Africa over the next decade. This session will celebrate examples of strong leadership driving Africa’s health agenda forward; amplify the need for strong policies and investment in lateral programs, like UHC, in addition to vertical programs; and discuss opportunities that governments and partners can leverage to increase investments toward UHC efforts.

Francis Omaswa is the Executive of the African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST), Publisher, Africa Health Journal and Chair of the African Health Systems Governance Network (Ashgovnet). He co-chairs the Independent Advisory Group to the WHO Director for the African Region. He was Director General of Health Services in the Ministry of Health in Uganda and coordinated major reforms in the health sector. He has a keen interest to access to quality health services by rural populations and has spent five years testing various approaches for this at the Ngora Mission Hospital in Uganda. He has been Chancellor of Busitema, University, Uganda; President, African Platform on Human Resources for Health (APHRH); Special Adviser to the WHO; Director General and founding Executive Director of the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA). He is founding Director of the Uganda Heart Institute at Makerere University, Uganda; founding President of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa; was chair of the GAVI Independent Review Committee; founding Chair of the Global Stop TB Partnership; and Chair of the Portfolio and Procurement Committee of the Global Fund Board. He was a member of the steering committee of the High Level Forum on health-related MDGs and has served on Commissions, Committees and Expert panels. His services have been recognised with multiple national, regional and global merit awards. Francis Omaswa is a graduate of Makerere Medical School, Uganda and has qualifications in surgery, health services management and medical education

5:00pm-5:05 – EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

5:05pm – 6:05pm EAT

Parallel Sessions

Breakouts

5-6 parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include:

Dr. Iris Mwanza

Dr. Iris Mwanza is the Director of the Community Health Roadmap, a collaboration of UNICEF, USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, World Bank, World Health Organization and the Community Health Acceleration Partnership – elevating community health systems and community health workers in 15 focus countries.

Prior to this position, she was the Executive Director of the BroadReach Institute for Training and Education, and the Deputy Director and Chief Operations Officer for the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ). At CIDRZ, she ran operations for large scale prevention, care, and treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Cervical Cancer. Before global health, Iris worked at the World Bank in Washington DC on Finance and Private Sector Development in South Asia, and as a corporate lawyer. She is a strong advocate for gender equality and is the co-chair of the Women in Global Health and W.H.O. Gender Equity Hub. She is also passionate about conserving nature and in on the WWF-US Board of Directors.

Iris has an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and law degrees from Cornell University and the University of Zambia.

For more information:

www.communityhealthroadmap.org


Dr. Natalia Kanem

Dr. Natalia Kanem is United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Dr. Kanem joined the United Nations in 2014 as UNFPA Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania, and served as Deputy Executive Director in charge of programmes from 2016 until her appointment as Executive Director in 2017. Previously, she served as founding president of ELMA Philanthropies, Inc., senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies, and as Ford Foundation Deputy Vice-President for peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America. Dr. Kanem holds a medical degree from Columbia University in New York, a master’s degree in Public Health, with specializations in epidemiology and preventive medicine, from the University of Washington in Seattle and a bachelor’s degree in history and science from Harvard College.


Anuradha Gupta

Anuradha Gupta is Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Since joining Gavi in 2015, Anuradha has led efforts to put equity and gender at the centre of Gavi’s programmatic planning and to tailor support to countries within Gavi’s strategy. She has also driven efforts to create a new model of country-level Alliance support, through the establishment of the partners’ engagement framework (PEF). At the same time, Anuradha has helped to improve country ownership and leadership of Gavi-supported programmes while enhancing accountability for results. In 2019, Gavi received the prestigious Lasker~Bloomberg Public Service Award for providing sustained access to childhood vaccines in the world’s poorest countries, saving millions of lives and highlighting the power of immunisation to prevent diseases. Prior to Gavi, Anuradha served as Mission Director of the National Health Mission of India, where she ran the largest – and possibly most complex – public health programme in the world with an annual budget of US$ 3.5 billion. A passionate and influential advocate of women, young girls and children, Anuradha played a leading role in India’s efforts to eradicate polio transmission, reduce maternal and child mortality and revitalise primary health care. Anuradha has contributed towards a number of important global health initiatives. She served as a member of the Steering Committee for Child Survival Call to Action, co-chaired the Stakeholder Group for the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning and was a member of the Family Planning 2020 (FP2020) Reference Group. Anuradha served as Co-Chair of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) and is currently a member of the PMNCH Board. She also played a role in shaping the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and is a member of the GFF Investors Group. From 2015-2018, Anuradha served on the Merck for Mothers Advisory Board. Anuradha holds an MBA from the University of Wollongong in Australia and received executive education from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Stanford Graduate School of Business and Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. In 2015, she was named one of “300 Women Leaders in Global Health” by the Global Health Centre of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.


Dr. Ndifanji Melia Namacha (MBBS)

Ndifanji is a global health advocate from Malawi and a Malaria No More UK youth ambassador. She is a member of the Commonwealth Youth Health Network and was one of the key speakers at the high level Malaria Summit during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London, 2018.  Ndifanji was part of the African Union Common Panel ‘Strengthening Youth Leadership and Engagement in the Fight Against Malaria in Africa’ a round table discussion organized by the AU Commission. Ndifanji has taken up various roles ranging from lecturing in public health at the University of Malawi, research with the Malaria Epidemiology group at the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Program, to being appointed Deputy Director Health Technical Support Services at the Ministry of Health Malawi. Currently she is a Program Manager on a PEPFAR Funded project whose goal is to Achieve HIV Epidemic Control through Scaling up Quality Testing, Care and Treatment.


Kene Esom

Kene Esom is a Policy Specialist with the United Nations Development Programme. His work focuses on enabling legal and policy environment for effective rights-based responses to health, and the intersection of law, human rights and gender. Prior to joining UNDP, Kene worked on various human rights and development issues including asylum and forced migration, sexual and gender-based violence and sexual orientation and gender identity. He is a Barrister-at-Law and holds a Master of Law [LL.M] in Human Rights and Democratisation in Africa from the University of Pretoria and a certificate in Global Health Delivery from Harvard University.


Bogolo Kenewondo

Bogolo J. Kenewendo is an African Economist, Managing Director of Kenewendo Advisory and the former Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry in Botswana. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development. Kenewendo is a member of the United Nations Secretary-General (UN SG) António  Guterres’ High-Level Panel on digital cooperation and group on Financing for Development, a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council for Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and also a WEF Young Global Leader. She is also the co-founder and chairperson of Molaya Kgosi Trust and sits on several corporate boards. She’s an advocate for the empowerment and protection of children and women.

Breaking Barriers: Gender-inclusive health and leadership in Africa

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

Women’s health is vital to advance broader health and development goals across Africa, yet women themselves – especially African women – are underrepresented in leadership and decision-making across global and national health institutions, while women’s health is often deprioritized or underfunded compared to other health issues. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that gains made in women’s health are being threatened, especially when it comes to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).

Taking place on International Women’s Day, this session will elevate the discourse on women in global health – focusing on both women as leaders and women as beneficiaries of health programs and funding. The session will provide a platform to highlight the vital role that women leaders have played in addressing health challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic – from policymaking and technical leadership to scientific research and development. It will also shine a spotlight on women’s involvement in health policies and decision-making (particularly for women’s health, SRHR and MNCH) as well as the gaps in women’s leadership and influence that must be addressed. Conversations will encourage greater collaboration and coordination among stakeholders around advancing a gender-equitable approach to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and reiterate the need to prioritize funding, policies and programs that meet the health needs of women and girls, as part of countries’ UHC plans and investments.

The moderator will also engage the speakers to discuss the importance of dismantling barriers for young women leaders. Speakers will be asked to share personal experiences and insights of the barriers they faced (or continue to face) in their careers, how they have overcome gender barriers, why these challenges remain, and what women leaders and their allies can do to help change the playing field for the next generation of women leaders.

Edwin Macharia

Edwin Macharia is the Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors, the leading global strategic advisory firm that works collaboratively with public, private and philanthropic organisations to enable all people, everywhere, to reach their fullest potential. In this role, Edwin sets the strategic direction of the firm and oversees activities across 30+ offices worldwide. At Dalberg, Edwin supports clients on a range of issues including strategy, operational efficiency, and program implementation. Edwin joined Dalberg from the Clinton Foundation, where he held multiple roles focused on rural communities. Before that he was at McKinsey & Company, where he served clients in the financial services and pharmaceutical sectors. Edwin is a global board member of The Nature Conservancy and Nabo Capital. He also just completed his term on Amref University Governing Council.


Justin Apsey

Justin Apsey is the Vice President - Africa Transformation at Unilever. He joined Unilever in Customer Development via the Management Trainee program in January 2000. Over the years he occupied various roles across the business units in Customer Development and Marketing, including a 3 year expatriation to Australia. In early 2012, Apsey took up the role as Vice President of Homecare on the Unilever South Africa Board.  In February 2016, Justin moved to Nairobi, Kenya as Managing Director for East Africa and the Emerging Markets, responsible for transforming the cluster in service of driving Africa’s accelerated growth agenda. While in East Africa, Justin founded and led some of the region’ milestone strategic partnership initiatives driven through employee purpose in action under the Bright Future Fund program, promoting circular plastic economy, youth skills empowerment, women entrepreneurship and community livelihoods. In January 2021, after completing a four-year tenure as Managing Director, Justin started his current role as Vice President - Africa Transformation at Unilever, as part of the Executive Leadership Team and moved to South Africa where he is currently based. Prior to joining Unilever Justin worked at Ogilvy in Client Service and Strategy. Ogilvy is one of Unilever’s key advertising agencies across various brands and is part of the WPP group.  Justin Holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree, with honours in Marketing from the University of Cape Town. He is married with three children. He is very passionate about Africa and seeing it succeed. His mantra is to lead in creating a brighter future for all. When not working, Justin enjoys the outdoors, running and staying healthy.


Kojo Boakye

Kojo Boakye is Facebook’s Director of Public Policy for Africa. He’s an ICT for Development practitioner with 17+ years’ experience working with governments, fixed-line and mobile operators, development partners, online service providers, content developers, entrepreneurs, and civil society organisations. Prior to joining Facebook, he was the Deputy Executive Director of the World Wide Web Foundation’s Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI), and he previously headed Research and Consultancy at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO).  Before being asked to lead Facebook’s policy work in SSA Kojo’s work focused on broadband affordability, connectivity and access, with a special focus on the socio-economic impact of broadband services. Today, his work involves the full gamut of policy matters that impact the digital economy, including data privacy, content policy, taxation, cybersecurity, election integrity, online safety, digital literacy, digital payments, and entrepreneurship. Kojo continues to be passionate about creating opportunities for Africa and Africans. Most recently, he joined the board for Junior Achievement Africa. In addition to an MSc in Development Studies, Kojo holds a BA in African History and Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.


Allen Asiimwe

Allen is the Chief Technical Officer at TradeMark East Africa. In this role she is responsible for the technical delivery of TMEA’s entire project portfolio in infrastructure, trade environment, and business competitiveness spanning 12 countries. Allen also oversees the Climate Change and Gender portfolios and leads collaboration with key stakeholders and development partners, including the Partner States, FCDO, USAID, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Prior to this, Allen has been a consultant for the African Export Import Bank supporting the implementation of the Intra Africa Trade Initiative and has served as past CEO of AVID Development, a consulting firm working on key issues of trade, development and governance in Africa. She is also a co- Founder of the Girls for Girls Global Mentoring Initiative now in 23 countries. Allen holds a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School (Edward Mason Fellow, 2017) and a Masters in International Business Law from the University of Manchester, UK (1998).


Eyong Ebai

Eyong Ebai is Zone General Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, responsible for GE Healthcare’s operations in 22 markets across West Central, South and East Africa. Eyong also serves as an Executive Director on the Board of GE International Operations (Nigeria) Ltd. Eyong first joined GE Healthcare in 2016 as General Manager West & Central Africa before his appointment as Executive General Manager for West, Central and French Sub-Saharan Africa in 2018.  Prior to GE, Eyong held leadership roles in the pharmaceutical, medical device, consumable, and equipment industries. He began his career in the graduate development program at Janssen, part of the Johnson & Johnson group of companies, and subsequently took on key commercial roles across several business units. Eyong then moved to Smith+Nephew, a leading medical equipment manufacturing company. After 15 years working in Europe, Eyong decided to focus his gained experience on the African continent, joining Johnson & Johnson Medical as the Market Development Manager for Anglophone West Africa, responsible for building the J&J Medical Surgical & Orthopaedic business across the region.  Eyong earned a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science from the University or York and post-graduate qualifications in Health Economics & Market Access from the University of Marseille. In his spare time, Eyong enjoys watching the Tottenham Hotspurs, running, and travelling.


Dr. Hauwa Mohammad

Dr Hauwa Mohammed has over 20 years’ experience working in Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) services. She has worked as a clinician and consultant obstetrician and gynecologist in Nigeria. She has been working as a public health physician for over 10 years on several MNCH programmes in Africa.  Dr Mohammed has been involved in operations research in MNCH projects and has participated in the development of training curriculum for Antenatal Care, Postnatal Care and Emergency Obstetrics and Newborn Care. She is involved in pre- and in-service education of midwives and doctors organizing and executing Life Saving Skills/Emergency Obstetrics and Newborn Care (LSS/EmONC), Antenatal and Postnatal Care and Quality of Care (QI) improvement trainings. Dr Mohammed currently works as a Senior Technical Officer for Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Nigeria she is dedicated to the improvement of MNCH in Africa.

Purposeful Partnerships

Hosted by Amref Health Africa 

Advancing Africa’s health agenda requires breaking down silos and adopting a whole-of-society approach. As we work to advance Universal Health Coverage (UHC), particularly in the context of COVID-19, governments, the private sector, civil society and all other stakeholders will have a responsibility and a role to play. Partnerships must be fostered across sectors and geographies to leverage the knowledge, skills, expertise and resources of diverse players. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has tested health systems, disrupted economies and transformed the global health landscape – in light of this, it is imperative that health partnerships are flexible, dynamic and adaptable to shifting circumstances. This session will explore the potential of forging strategic, transparent, mutually beneficial and innovative partnerships to help catalyse progress towards shared health targets – as well as the value of engaging new and unconventional partners to tackle global health issues, including partners from outside the health sector. In particular, this session will make the case for multi-sectoral collaborations that have emerged or adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic, to respond to immediate needs while also focusing on sustainability and long-term goals. Speakers will highlight how non-traditional partnerships can engage new audiences to promote change, how sectors outside of health and development can contribute to advancing Africa’s health agenda, and how flexibility and innovation are key to driving impact. This session will also highlight recommendations from successful, purpose-driven partnerships for effective collaboration to advance Africa’s health agenda. The conversation on “Purposeful Partnerships” presents an opportunity to celebrate innovative and adaptable partnerships, discuss how to scale these up to reach wider populations, and identify new areas of potential impact and collaboration, to deliver on our shared goal of health for all.

Dr. Stefan Germann

Dr. Stefan Germann is the CEO OF Fondation Botnar, a Swiss-based foundation which champions the use of AI and digital technology to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people in growing urban environments.

Stefan was previously Executive Director of onegoalglobal.org (an innovative collaborative child nutrition and healthy lifestyle campaign), and Senior Director of World Vision International Sustainable Health Partnership, Innovation and Accountability unit based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

He worked for over 25 years in Africa and Asia in various health leadership roles with different agencies in the area of child health-related development, relief and advocacy work. His worked included managing a large hospital in Zimbabwe.  In 2005 he started to work with World Vision International’s emergency relief team as the director for the integrated technical sector teams in the Asia Tsunami response. This was a complex relief & reconstruction program where he was based in Asia. This program included major health components, including primary health care rehabilitation in Sri Lanka and mHealth projects for midwives in Aceh, Indonesia. He has previously held several board and advisory board memberships, including: Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), UBS Optimus Foundation, REPSSI in Africa, and on the Advisory Board of the Global Health Program, The Graduate Institute – Geneva focusing on the role of NGOs in global health diplomacy. He holds a degree in micro-engineering, an MSc degree in Social Policy & NGO Management, and a doctoral degree in Development Studies focusing on child wellbeing in the urban African context. Stefan finished in 2015 an Executive Master’s program in Tri Sector Collaboration at Singapore Management University.


Dr. Beatrice Murage

Dr. Beatrice Murage is passionate about access to quality healthcare. She is an experienced leader in systems strengthening, healthcare management, digital innovation and exploration ventures. She has successfully built teams and led strategy, policy formulation and project implementation in emerging and established markets. Dr. Murage is currently Senior Scientist at Philips Research and Innovation, India & Africa. She is based within Philips Group Innovation & Strategy and works closely with Philips teams in International Markets, Philips Foundation and Group Sustainability. Dr. Murage serves in an advisory capacity to various industry organizations and coalitions working in entrepreneurship and innovation. They include Digital Connected Care Coalition (DCCC), Transform Health and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA). Dr. Murage is a medical doctor and she holds an International MBA and Master in Business Analytics & Big Data from IE Business School, Spain.


Thomas Opiyo Onyango

As Living Goods’ Kenya Country Director, Thomas drives strategy, leads the development of the team, and promotes Living Goods to key stakeholders in Kenya. Prior to Living Goods, Thomas was the General Manager for Merck Health Care & Life Science in Kenya, where he focused on team/talent management, business development, and key stakeholder relationships. His experience includes building high-performing organizations from his previous roles leading multinational pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Merck, Thomas worked for Novartis as Franchise Head – English East Africa. He holds a Master’s Degree in General Management from Strathmore University.  


Temitayo (Tayo) Erogbogbo

Tayo Erogbogbo has two decades of combined private sector and international development experience, 10 years of which was spent in the pharmaceutical industry in multiple roles across community relations, government affairs, marketing and sales. As the Director of Advocacy for MSD for Mothers, Tayo is responsible for national and global strategic partnerships and programs to bring about policies and practice changes to improve maternal health care and strengthen health systems, particularly where private sector approaches can be leveraged for greater impact. Prior to MSD for Mothers, Tayo led the establishment of an adolescents and youth constituency at The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) to advocate for better sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health policies and services at global, regional, and national levels. Additionally, he contributed to the development of the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' Health 2016 -2030. Previously, in collaboration with multisectoral partners in Nigeria, he contributed to the passage of the National Health Bill, the development of the National Gender Policy Guidelines and the passage of Violence Against Person's Prohibition in support of gender equality. Tayo also spearheaded Abbott's HIV patient relations function within Europe, developing services to support people living with HIV by partnering with community organizations. He advocated for antiretroviral drug access across Africa and developed a health care professional (HCP) train-the-trainer program that has educated over 3,000 HCPs. Tayo earned a BSc in Management Sciences from Loughborough University, and MSc Information Technology for Management from Coventry University.


Seth Akumani

Seth Akumani has been combining business, technology, and user insights to build and champion impactful solutions over the past decade.  At UNDP, he is responsible for scouting grassroots solutions, building partnerships, and shining light on emerging issues, trends, and innovative applications of disruptive technologies such as AI and blockchain. Prior to his current role, Seth was Director of Business Development and Marketing at GenKey, a biometric technology company, where he was involved in delivering identification solutions for health insurance schemes, social protection programs, and other pro-poor initiatives. Before that, Seth co-founded and led ClaimSync, a health-tech start-up that developed digital health solutions for low-resource settings.  Seth has spent over eight years assessing the viability of hospital management, health insurance, and claims processing solutions in Africa. He is passionate about digital health and has spoken at several venues, including the African Healthcare Summit and the Economist Healthcare in Africa Conference.


Caroline Mbindyo

Caroline is an experienced leader in the fields of global health, innovation, technology, and international development. She has extensive experience in driving complex program deployments in multiple countries, initiating learning opportunities to better inform policy, testing technologies and innovations, and developing new business opportunities through public-private partnerships in emerging markets. She has over 20 years’ experience running and growing entrepreneurial ventures in the nonprofit and commercial space, with a track record of shifting opinions, and applying innovative approaches for profit, social impact, and sustainability. Caroline is a Board Member of White Ribbon Alliance Kenya Chapter and D-Tree International.

Technology and Digital Platforms for UHC

Hosted by Amref Health Africa 

Less than 50% of Africans have access to modern health care facilities, and many countries are struggling to meet the needs of their population due to acute health worker shortages. In the face of these obstacles, innovation is transforming health care diagnostics, treatment, delivery, data collection, and user experience in Africa. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has galvanized the development of more than 120 health technology innovations that have been piloted or adopted in Africa, according to WHO – including technologies focused on surveillance, contact tracing, community engagement, treatment, laboratory systems and infection, prevention and control. This session will highlight how novel and innovative interventions are responding to emerging needs as well as long-standing health challenges across Africa; explore the value of data systems for health and how they are being leveraged to make strides towards health for all; spotlight African innovators; and showcase technologies that are leapfrogging progress towards UHC across the continent.

Dr Eva Njenga

Dr. Eva Njenga, MBS, is a well-respected and world-renowned endocrinologist with a vast experience and knowledge in tropical medicine, Social Medicine and Medical Anthropology. She holds a MMed from the University of Nairobi, has a certificate in Endocrinology from the University of New Castle Upon Tyne-UK and is a Social Medicine and Medical Anthropology Fellow at Harvard University. She has been practicing medicine for over 30 years and has worked in several hospitals in the country offering specialized care in diabetes and endocrine conditions management. She has also been a lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine for more than 10 years and continues to share her expertise with post-graduate students in various private university hospitals in the country. She Co- Chairs the NCD Intersectoral Coordinating Committee, sits on the advisory Board of Diabetes Africa, is an advisor of the African Research Universities Alliance, and is a member of the Centre of Excellence in Non-Communicable Diseases, the Kenya Diabetes Study Group, Kenya Medical Association Kenya Association of Physicians among others. She is also the overall team leader of the Ministry of Health Technical Team for Mitigation of COVID19 Pandemic and strengthening of Health Systems for UHC in the 47 Counties in Kenya. She has been very instrumental in matters healthcare in the country, so much so that her exemplary work and commitment has seen her gain recognition and conferred State Honours by HE President Uhuru Kenyatta for her distinguished and outstanding services to the nation and was bestowed upon the title, Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS). Dr. Njenga cares very much about people’s health and is a passionate NCDs champion.

Dr Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti is the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa and the first woman to occupy this position. She was recently confirmed by the WHO Executive Board after her resounding re-lection for the second term. Over the past five years, Dr Moeti has led a Transformation Agenda that is widely acknowledged to have improved the performance and effectiveness of the Organization. She made tremendous progress through the Transformation Agenda, which include improved response capacity to health emergences like COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola virus outbreak. The flagship of the Transformation Agenda has been the successful eradication of wild polio virus in the African region. The Transformation Agenda has since been adopted to inform WHO global reforms

Dr Moeti is a medical doctor and public health expert, with more than 40 years of national and international experience. She has worked with the WHO Regional Office for Africa, where she has held several senior positions, since 1999. Dr Moeti successfully led WHO’s “3 by 5” Initiative in the African Region, which aimed to expand access to antiretroviral therapy in countries. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Moeti worked with UNAIDS as the Team Leader of the Africa and Middle East Desk in Geneva, with UNICEF as a Regional Advisor, and with Botswana’s Ministry of Health in various capacities.

In recognition of her excellent service to humanity, Dr Moeti has received many accolades including an Honorary Fellowship from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana. She is a great champion for women in leadership in global health.

Women in Innovation: Providing leadership, creating solutions and driving change

Hosted by IFPMA; Co-sponsored by International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC), and The Innovation Council

Innovation is crucial to identifying solutions to achieve the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Implementation of the SDGs requires all stakeholders to play their part. This International Women’s Day, women from diverse sectors, different countries and with distinct innovation models, will come together throughout the world to share their journey and how they are working to provide real life solutions. Many of them will have made an impact in their communities, or regionally and/or globally, through thinking differently and driving change through innovation and creativity. We want to celebrate your personal stories, and to highlight how you have impacted lives. And, above all, we want you to inspire future innovators, creators, engineers, and scientists.

 John Simon

 Kanini Muthoni

 David Higgins

 Ruchika Singhal

 Femke Bos

Blended Finance for UHC

Hosted by Amref Netherlands      

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 – ensuring health and well-being for all at all ages – is critical to achieving progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Despite great progress, many African countries still lag far behind on key health and social security parameters, such as maternal mortality, under 5 mortality and health insurance coverage. The Covid-19 crisis lays bare a critical need to step-up long-term investments in healthcare to accelerate the pace towards achieving SDG3, beyond emergency response – but many African countries have limited financial capacity to make these investments, struggling with a public health financing shortfall estimated at $66bn a year (FT, 2019). Private capital can complement government investments in inclusive healthcare projects. The higher risk profile of such projects requires innovative blending of different sources of financing, including patient impact capital (equity, long term debt), concessional capital, and donor funds. In this interactive session, we will use concrete case studies to highlight different innovative financing solutions, and ask different players in the healthcare financing space to share their respective insights.

Njide Ndili

Ms Njide Ndili is the Country Director for PharmAccess Foundation, an International NGO dedicated to facilitating affordable access to quality health care in Africa by stimulating investments in the healthcare industry through partnerships with the private sector and government institutions. She directs activities that support demand-side financing, supply-side quality improvement using SafeCare© Methodology, and activities to improve access to financing for healthcare small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the Medical Credit Fund. Ms Ndili’s experience in the healthcare industry spans decades in the United States and Nigeria, and she has worked as a consultant to several healthcare organisations. She has an MSc in Health Economics, Policy, and Management from London School of Economics, an AMP from INSEAD Business School, MBA from the University of Houston, Post Graduate Diploma in Finance, and B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Nigeria. Ms Ndili is currently serving as a Commissioner for the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission.


Christian Franz

Mr Christian Franz is supporting the Secretariat of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission as Policy and Research Consultant. He is the Managing Director of the data and policy analysis firm CPC Analytics, which is based in Berlin and Pune. In global health, he has worked and published on the commercial determinants of health, the role of banking for health, and on Germany’s role in global health. Currently, he is also facilitating the Community of Practice on ‘NCDs and commercial determinants of health’ for the WHO GCM/NCD. Over the past years, Mr Franz has been affiliated with the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin), where he analysed the impact of regional disparities on election outcomes and worked on income inequality in Germany. He has a Bachelor’s degree in business administration and economic analysis from Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich and a Master’s degree in public policy from Hertie School of Governance Berlin.


Louise Holly

Ms Louise Holly is supporting the Secretariat of the Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission as Policy and Research Consultant. Since 2018, Ms Holly has worked as an independent consultant supporting a range of international organisations with policy analysis, report writing, qualitative evaluations and advocacy strategy development on issues such as digital health, newborn and child health, HIV, health system strengthening, and children’s rights. In previous roles with RESULTS, Save the Children and UNICEF, Ms Holly acquired over 15 years’ experience of working with civil society, policymakers and intergovernmental organisations around the world to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare, and to promote children’s and women’s rights. She has a BA Hons in Philosophy from King’s College London and an MSc in History and International Relations from the London School of Economics.


 Dr. Ousmane Ly

Enow Awah Georges Stevens, MD is a clinician specialising in sexual and reproductive health, and maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health in emergency and post-conflict environments. In addition to his clinical experience, Dr Enow is a leader in advocating for meaningful youth engagement and the role of young people in sustainable development and decision making. Dr Enow is a board member with various international organisations such as CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, Youths Combating NTDs, and Y+ Global representing West and Central Africa. He is an Associate Royal Commonwealth Fellow, African Healthcare Innovator Awardee, YALI Fellow, Obama Fellow, WHO Scholar, African Presidential Leadership Fellow, and Women Deliver Young Leader. Dr Enow studied at the University of Yaoundé; The University of Bamenda; Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration; Le Centre Africain d’Etudes Supérieures en Gestion; and Royal Tropical Institute (KIT).

From strategy to implementation: on the pathways of the continent’s youngest countries towards digital transformations in health

Hosted by Governing Health Futures: The Lancet & Financial Times Commission

The Governing Health Futures 2030 Commission is exploring the convergence of digital health and artificial intelligence with universal health coverage (UHC), with a focus on the health and well-being of children and young people. The Commission is gathering information on different approaches to digital transformation of health systems, particularly in countries with large populations of young people under 25. In 2020, the Commission conducted a study on ten African countries with young populations (Cameroon, DRC, Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda) to better understand national priorities and activities for strengthening digitally enabled health systems, barriers to implementation, and the extent to which the needs and views of young people have factored in these efforts to date.

This session will provide an opportunity to hear the findings from the Commission’s study, and to contribute further insights on the experiences of African countries in developing and implementing digital health strategies. 

6:05pm EAT

Close of Day 1

(Open networking platform until 7:00 pm EAT)



Tuesday, 9 March 2021

2:00pm – 2:10pm EAT

Introduction to Day 2

Day 2 Welcome Address

Patricia Vermeulen, CEO, Amref Netherlands

Video: Building Back Better - Rebuilding Africa’s Health Systems Beyond COVID-19

2:10pm – 3:10pm EAT

Plenary 2: Build Back Better: Health Security Beyond COVID-19

Dr. Matshidiso Moeti

Dr Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti is the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa and the first woman to occupy this position. She was recently confirmed by the WHO Executive Board after her resounding re-lection for the second term. Over the past five years, Dr Moeti has led a Transformation Agenda that is widely acknowledged to have improved the performance and effectiveness of the Organization. She made tremendous progress through the Transformation Agenda, which include improved response capacity to health emergences like COVID-19 pandemic and Ebola virus outbreak. The flagship of the Transformation Agenda has been the successful eradication of wild polio virus in the African region. The Transformation Agenda has since been adopted to inform WHO global reforms

Dr Moeti is a medical doctor and public health expert, with more than 40 years of national and international experience. She has worked with the WHO Regional Office for Africa, where she has held several senior positions, since 1999. Dr Moeti successfully led WHO’s “3 by 5” Initiative in the African Region, which aimed to expand access to antiretroviral therapy in countries. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Moeti worked with UNAIDS as the Team Leader of the Africa and Middle East Desk in Geneva, with UNICEF as a Regional Advisor, and with Botswana’s Ministry of Health in various capacities.

In recognition of her excellent service to humanity, Dr Moeti has received many accolades including an Honorary Fellowship from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana. She is a great champion for women in leadership in global health.


Dr. John Nkengasong

Dr John Nkengasong serves as Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a specialized technical institution of the African Union. Earlier this year, he was appointed as one of the WHO Director-General’s Special Envoys on COVID-19 Preparedness and Response, and most recently was awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2020 Global Goalkeeper Award for his contributions to the continental response in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.

Dr Nkengasong is an authority on implementing HIV therapy in resource-challenged areas and a prolific author on the topics of HIV diagnosis, pathogenesis, and drug resistance. Prior to his current position, he served as Acting Deputy Principal Director of the Center for Global Health and Chief of the International Laboratory Branch, Division of Global HIV and TB for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

He serves on several international advisory boards including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative – CEPI, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) among others. He has authored over 250 peer-review articles in international journals and published several book chapters.


Dr. Martin Fitchet

Martin Fitchet, M.D., is Head of Global Public Health (GPH) at Johnson & Johnson where he leads an organization fully dedicated to addressing some of the highest unmet needs and healthcare challenges facing the world’s most vulnerable and underserved people. Martin brings more than 20 years of experience as a proven research and development (R&D) leader with a focus on accelerating development and access to transformational innovation for those in low and middle income countries through an end-to-end approach. Under his leadership, the GPH team combines R&D, global access strategies and programs, and local operations to advance the critical solutions that save lives, cure patients and prevent disease for those impacted by tuberculosis, HIV, mental illness and other public health challenges.

Martin has held numerous leadership positions across Johnson & Johnson leveraging leadership and vision in R&D across therapeutic areas. Prior to joining GPH, Martin was R&D and Global Therapeutic Area (TA) Head, Pulmonary Hypertension (PH), for Actelion, a Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson, and previously Global R&D leader for Actelion from Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices. Prior to that, Martin served as Global Head of R&D for the DePuy Synthes Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, he held scientific leadership positions in Medical Affairs and Research & Development in metabolism and diabetes for Sanofi Aventis and Novartis. Having earned his degree at the University of Nottingham Medical School in Nottingham, UK, Martin became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1995, and later joined the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in London, UK.


Dr. Thandeka Ngcobo

Dr. Thandeka Ngcobo is a charismatic young medical doctor from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, who beat the odds and continues to bloom wherever she is planted. She is registered with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as an Independent Medical Practitioner and currently practices as a Medical Officer at Rietvlei District Hospital. She completed her matric at the age of 17 and went on to pursue her medical studies at the University of KwaZulu Natal where she graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery.  When she isn’t treating patients she serves as the Corporate Affairs officer at Ngcobo Empire; an Afrocentric multimedia company. Her latest business venture is the acquisition of Maguya Steel (Pty) Ltd; A steel manufacturing company, in which she is the majority shareholder. The company aims to recruit more women into the construction industry. Dr Ngcobo is also a board member of the Godisanang Youth Empowering Foundation, an NPO helping to develop various rural communities and empower other young people. Having been a teenage mother herself she remains vocal about issues of teenage pregnancy and preparations to launch her very own Non-Profit Organization are underway. She is one of the 2018 Top 100 Young Leaders from the SADC region and 2018 Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans who are inspiring change and greatness. She would like to be known as one of the young professional women who followed her dreams and made it against all odds, a Medical practitioner who is always prepared to serve beyond her line of duty to inspire and grow Africa. 

 

Greg Perry

Greg Perry is the Assistant Director General at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Association (IFPMA). He has responsibility for IFPMA’s external outreach and stakeholder engagement in global health topics including innovation, access, and the international regulatory environment. Greg Perry brought with him more than 20 years’ leadership and advocacy experience in the public healthcare arena. Prior to joining IFPMA, Greg worked as Executive Director of the Medicines Patent Pool, which he joined in 2013 and as Director General of the European Generic Medicines Association (1999 - 2013) in Brussels. Previously he worked as a partner in a UK public affairs company as a European Union policy advisor to corporate and non-governmental organizations, and before that as a Parliamentary Advisor to Members of the European Parliament. Greg is a Member of the Advisory Council of the Organization for Professionals in Regulatory Affairs (TOPRA) and is a former member of the Standing Advisory Committee before the European Patent Office (SACEPO). Greg also holds the Golden Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland.


Dr. Solomon Zewdu

Dr. Solomon Zewdu is the deputy director in the Africa office of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where he shapes continental health, nutrition, disease eradication and development investments. Prior to moving to the continental platform, he served as the deputy director in Ethiopia, where he created significant opportunities for system-based investments; built on concurrently identifying, planning and aligning the Foundation’s priorities with the Government of Ethiopia HSTP and the donor community. Given his background in emergency management strategy, planning and response, he also serves as the BMGF COVID-19 coordinator for the African continent, to inform the shaping of critical COVID-19 interventions.  Prior to joining the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dr. Zewdu worked both in the private sector and US Department of Defense up to a rank of Lieutenant Colonel - USAF. He relocated to Ethiopia to take the position of Country Director for US PEPFAR program under the joint program of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how glaring gaps in health security and health systems preparedness can fail to prevent the spread of disease outbreaks. To ensure Africa does not have to face the crippling effects of another pandemic, we need a well-planned and integrated response to improving health security and building healthy societies. This plenary will focus on how governments, private sector entities, civil society organizations and development partners need to put in place long term, country-led strategies to prevent another widespread disease outbreak and ultimately build back better post-COVID-19. This plenary will make the case for urgent, concrete action for governments and health leaders to take in order to strengthen health systems, prepare and protect populations from future disease outbreaks; highlight existing response and preparedness strategies to mitigate the risks of future disease outbreaks and build resilient health systems; and call upon health leaders, policy makers, pan-African organizations, academic and research institutions, and global organizations to commit to disease outbreak preparedness and recovery measures.

3:10pm – 3:15pm EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

3:15pm – 4:15pm EAT

Parallel Sessions

Breakouts

5-6 parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include:






 Imene Ben Abdallah

Seth Akumani has been combining business, technology, and user insights to build and champion impactful solutions over the past decade.  At UNDP, he is responsible for scouting grassroots solutions, building partnerships, and shining light on emerging issues, trends, and innovative applications of disruptive technologies such as AI and blockchain. Prior to his current role, Seth was Director of Business Development and Marketing at GenKey, a biometric technology company, where he was involved in delivering identification solutions for health insurance schemes, social protection programs, and other pro-poor initiatives. Before that, Seth co-founded and led ClaimSync, a health-tech start-up that developed digital health solutions for low-resource settings.  Seth has spent over eight years assessing the viability of hospital management, health insurance, and claims processing solutions in Africa. He is passionate about digital health and has spoken at several venues, including the African Healthcare Summit and the Economist Healthcare in Africa Conference.

 

Launching the FutureProofing Healthcare Africa Sustainability Index

Hosted by Roche

The FutureProofing Healthcare Africa Sustainability Index aims to take an objective view of how health systems are performing today and begin to prepare them for the future. Through publicly available data, the Index examines the fundamental drivers of sustainable healthcare systems, compares approaches between countries, identifies elements that lead to more sustainable care and promotes best practices through a future-focused discussion of real-world solutions. This session serves as the global reveal of the first Africa Sustainability Index, which reviewed data across 18 markets in Africa across major vital signs including access, financing, innovation and quality. The Index is supported by Roche and overseen by a panel of independent healthcare experts from across the continent. The Africa Sustainability Index is all the more relevant in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic as we work to better understand the resilience of healthcare systems when dealing with major shocks like this one.

Redefining Human Resources for Health from the Laboratory to the Last Mile

Hosted by Johnson & Johnson

COVID-19 showed us that health systems strengthening is not the task of one organization, ministry or sector, but the work of all of us. The way out of the pandemic and to restoring strong primary care and pandemic preparedness is through the people of our system; all of us, working for all of them. From nurses and community health workers to data scientists and entrepreneurs, we need to unlock the capacity and ingenuity of people across the continuum of health – the laboratory through to the last mile.  Join Johnson & Johnson and our partners for a panel discussion on how capacity building at every level of health is redefining human resources for health beyond COVID-19. With technologists, nurses and researchers, get a frontline perspective on what is working to advance the leadership, skills and talent across Africa to solve the challenges ahead in our health system.

Dr. Parfait Uwaliraye

Dr Parfait Uwaliraye is the Director General for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and Health Financing at the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, a position he has held since November 2012. Dr Uwaliraye is a medical doctor with a Master’s degree in Public Health. He worked as a Research Assistant, a District Medical Officer and the director of Kibagabaga District Hospital prior to joining the Ministry of Health. He has a particular focus health policy, planning, health financing, private sector engagement and global health.


Dr Nneka Orji

Dr Nneka Orji is a policymaker working for the federal government of Nigerian the health sector. She is the Technical Advisor on Health financing, to the Minister of State for Health in Nigeria. She originally trained as a medical doctor and practised clinical medicine for a few years before moving into public health, where she has supervised several projects and travelled to over 25 countries around the world. She is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate at the Menzies School of Medical Research, University of Tasmania. Besides studying, Dr Orji loves hiking.


Nathaniel Otoo

Nathaniel Otoo is a Health Systems & Public Policy Consultant and a Senior Fellow at Results for Development Institute. He was the founding Executive Director of the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Centre (SPARC) hosted at Amref Health Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. He has over 11-years of work experience in health insurance implementation and served as CEO of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Authority from 2015 to 2017. Nathaniel has contributed to and supported numerous global, regional and local UHC activities and events. A founding member of the JLN, and later its first convener, Nathaniel is a member of the Duke University Launch & Scale Speedometer Advisory Board. He also serves on several other boards.


S Pierre Yameogo

S Pierre Yameogo is a medical doctor, public health specialist and Technical Secretary in charge of universal health coverage and One Health at the Ministry of Health in Burkina Faso. He supports the effective coordination of interventions, promoting strategic purchasing mechanisms within the country’s Ministry of Health.


Dr Nkechi Olalere

Dr Nkechi Olalere is the Executive Director of Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) and steers SPARC’s vision of empowering countries with knowledge and practical tools to make access to affordable and quality health care a reality for all.

Nkechi has over sixteen years’ experience in health financing implementation. Before joining the development sector, she served as a C-suite executive in various health insurance firms operating the National Health Insurance Scheme and private health insurance plans in Nigeria. She is passionate about strategic purchasing, especially provider payment reforms, several of which she led in the private health insurance space. Nkechi’s experience in the private and public sectors gives her an interesting perspective into health system strengthening.

Nkechi is the chair of Africa Union’s (AU) Tracker sub-committee tasked with developing indicators and measures of progress for ‘More Health for the Money’. This work is an input into the domestic health financing tracker, which will complement the Africa Scorecard on Domestic Financing for Health and enable AU Member States to track progress on domestic financing, including its efficient and effective allocation and use. She has recently been appointed into the newly formed Global Financing Facility Results Advisory Group.


Cheryl Cashin

Cheryl Cashin, PhD, is a Managing Director at Results for Development in the global health practice. In that role she co-leads a portfolio of more than 20 projects and initiatives in global health systems, and she serves on R4D’s executive team. Dr. Cashin has led several initiatives at R4D that aim to build new models of support for countries to address complex health system issues. She designed the Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative of the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage (JLN) and has led the initiative since it was launched in 2011, and She is currently leading R4D's technical support to Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) in partnership with Amref Health Africa.


 Oludare Bodunrin

Agnes Gatome-Munyua is a senior program officer at Results for Development where she works on the Health Systems Strengthening Accelerator, the Joint Learning Network for Universal Health Coverage’s Provider Payment Mechanisms technical initiative and the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center as a technical facilitator on collaborative learning activities. On SPARC she has coordinated the evidence generation activities with the consortium of technical partners including the Strategic Health Purchasing Functional Mapping of purchasing arrangements in nine Sub-Saharan countries.

Strategic Health Purchasing: Changing the Conversation

Hosted by the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Centre (SPARC)

(3:15pm - 5:20pm EAT)

Two years after the SPARC launch, what has changed in the landscape of strategic health purchasing (SHP) on the continent? This session will unpack the gaps/challenges experienced by countries and SPARC’s efforts to generate evidence and develop the expertise at bridging these gaps. The session will include:

  • A spoken word performance to introduce the session 
  • An introductory presentation focusing on the functional capacities needed to drive progress on strategic purchasing
  • Presentation findings of a mapping exercise undertaken in 10 sub-Saharan African countries through the SPARC Technical Partners (TPs) Consortium
  • A fireside chat with key policymakers to provide framing on progress and challenges affecting the institutionalization of SHP
  • A moderated Q&A session – featuring policymakers and technical experts – open to all participants
  • Conclude the session and reflect on key messages
Lois Quam

Lois Quam is the president and chief executive officer of Pathfinder International, a leader in sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and youth with offices in more than 20 countries. Under Quam’s leadership, Pathfinder has expanded work in West Africa, advanced comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights programming, promoted the transition to country-based leadership that leverages and empowers local expertise, and launched a funding vehicle to support and grow work on women-led climate resilience. Additionally, Quam has established a more than 60-member President’s Council that brings together leaders and experts from around the globe to serve as ambassadors for Pathfinder’s work. Before joining Pathfinder, Quam served as a senior leader in the non-profit, public, and corporate sectors, bringing a lifelong commitment to women’s empowerment, universal healthcare, and the environment in the U.S. and abroad.  Quam was chief operating officer of The Nature Conservancy from 2014 to 2016 and was selected in 2011 by President Barack Obama to head his signature Global Health Initiative at the Department of State. Prior to her work in the public sector, she was the founding CEO of Ovations, a division of the FORTUNE 50 global corporation UnitedHealth Group. Currently, Quam serves on the Board of Directors for the Commonwealth Fund, the Board of Directors for guardian.org, the Board of Directors for Compassus, and the Board of Trustees for the Center for American Progress. She previously served on the Board of Editors of the British Medical Journal and has been named three times to FORTUNE’s list of the most influential women leaders in business. A Rhodes Scholar, Quam has degrees from Oxford University and Macalester College. She speaks English and Norwegian and grew up in rural Minnesota.


Riaz Mobaracaly

Riaz Mobaracaly is Pathfinder International’s country director in Mozambique. He is a proven leader in public health with more than 13 years of experience in the management and implementation of national, provincial, and district level health programs with specific focus on sexual and reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, and HIV & AIDS. He joined the team in Mozambique in 2013 as director of clinical services and assumed the role of senior country director in 2016. Before joining Pathfinder, Riaz spent seven years within the Mozambican Ministry of Health in different capacities and has made substantial contributions to the current status of reproductive health outcomes throughout Mozambique. He has worked hard to develop and increase the technical abilities of staff at the community- and health facility-level, serving as the medical chief officer at district and provincial level for the Sofala Provincial Health Directorate, the director of the Department of Human Capital within the Government of Nampula and the provincial director of health in Nampula.


Prof Joachim Osur

Prof Joachim Osur is the Technical Director, Amref Health Africa. He is Associate Professor of sexual and reproductive health and also the, Dean School of Medical Sciences at the Amref International University. He is a public health, reproductive health, and Sexual Medicine specialist with a wide experience in health programming in the African context. He has contributed immensely in health systems strengthening, health policy development and development of health delivery models that have impacted thousands of lives in various countries in Africa. Among others, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery, a Master’s Degree in Public Health, and a PhD in reproductive health; a Membership of the American College of Sexologists and a Fellowship of the European Committee on Sexual Medicine.


Joshua Amponsem

Joshua Amponsem is the Executive Director – Green Africa Youth Organization. He is an environmental and climate activist. He is an Adaptation Fellow at the Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) and the founder of Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO). Joshua focuses on the role of youth in Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Resilience Building. He is the lead author of the first-ever background paper on youth and climate change adaptation which provides a pathway for youth engagement in global adaptation efforts. In Ghana, he is leading the Water for Adaptation and Sustainable Communities Project – where he builds the capacity of youth to support community resilience through ecosystem-based adaptation measures, sustainable agriculture practices, circular economy and disaster risk reduction.


 Prof. Afeikhena Jerome

Dr. Onabanjo joined UNFPA in 1995 as a National Programme Officer and thereafter as a Programme Specialist in Swaziland and Kenya, before she served at UNFPA Headquarters as Technical Advisor, HIV/AIDS, and later as Special Assistant to the Executive Director. More recently, she has held UNFPA Representative posts in Tanzania and in South Africa. Before joining UNFPA, Dr. Onabanjo worked for Planned Parenthood as Programme Director and prior to this, she worked for the Ministry of Health in Nigeria.  Dr. Onabanjo holds a Bachelor’s Degree in biology from the University of London and a Medical Doctor degree from the University of Zambia, in addition to a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Climate and Health: Empowering Women and Youth to Drive Climate Solutions

Hosted by Pathfinder International

Pathfinder International has partnered with AMREF Health Africa to host a session on Climate Change and Public Health – bringing the key intersecting issues to the forefront, outlining the urgent multisectoral action needed to strengthen health systems and addressing the growing burden of climate change on communities in order to promote health security. 

Healthcare does not exist in isolation of social, political, and environmental factors that influence our societies. Health systems cannot be effective if we do not acknowledge and prepare for risks and pressures outside the health system itself. Climate change is one of the most imminent challenges to the health and well-being of people across the world, especially Africa. As climate change events grow in frequency and intensity, it becomes harder for many populations to get the basic food and water resources they need – thereby increasing susceptibility to disease. 

Despite being a global challenge, the repercussions of climate change disproportionately affect Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including many African countries. This session will highlight existing efforts and growing plans to address the impact of climate change on health across Africa. The session will focus on the importance of women’s leadership in addressing issues of climate locally, regionally and nationally; youth advocacy for climate justice; and issues surrounding climate change and its impact on the health and well-being of young people in Africa.  Global health organizations will be encouraged to join the conversation to learn ways they can integrate climate change advocacy, implementation and leadership into their programs. 

William Dekker

William Dekker is the 2019 Winner of the Public Relations Society of Kenya (PRSK) Young PR Professional of the Year. He is an all-round communicator with considerable experience in designing and implementing Public Relations and communication strategies for intergovernmental organizations, government ministries, state departments and agencies, multinationals, not-for-profits, and for-profits. William is passionate about health communication, and the engagement of young people as drivers of action towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).


Dr. Mercy Mwangangi

Fanatically positive and militantly optimistic, Dr. Mwangangi works in the Ministry of Health, Kenya as the newly appointed Chief Administrative Secretary. In this role, she supports the Cabinet Secretary in providing oversight and stewardship in the implementation of Health Sector policies and in building collaborative partnerships with a diverse range of sector stakeholders. Dr. Mwangangi believes in the crucial and catalytic role that health plays in the social and economic development of Kenya, and it is with this affirmation that she put down her stethoscope and pursued a master’s degree in Health Economics and Policy at the University of Adelaide in South Australia in 2015. In addition, Mercy received the Australian Leadership Award, a supplementary fellowship offered to applicants who demonstrate leadership skills and the potential to influence development outcomes in their home country. Dr. Mwangangi, contributed to the design, and implementation of the Universal Health Coverage Pilot program, that form part of the Presidential Big Four Agenda. Having previously worked as the head of the Health Financing Division in the Ministry of Health, her focus in the design of the UHC Program has centered on the health financing architecture of the program and its alignment to intergovernmental service delivery priorities. With an indulgence for analytics and design thinking, Mercy has also contributed to the development of an array of policy frameworks in the health sector, including the Primary Health Care Strategy. She also served as the joint secretary of the Health Benefits Advisory Panel that was commissioned with the design of the Essential Health Benefit Package for Kenya. She is also a member of African Women in Leadership Network (WILN), a forum that offers Australia Awards female alumni a platform to engage in discussions on issues affecting women and to share valuable insights for the advancement of African women. In her role as part of the stewards of the Kenya’s risk communication strategy in the fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, and an emerging face of solace and resilience, Dr Mwangangi has gained an appreciation for the role that the youth can play in public service as communication and behavior change champions. Using this lived experience, she is in the processes of setting up a platform for the participation of young people in health promotion. Mercy is an adrenaline sport enthusiast having taken to Sky diving and now setting her sights on shark cage diving in Australia. She is also a novice salsa dancer and in her younger days was an amateur diving medalist. She escapes it all by retreating to her tiny-home office, which houses her diverse collection of books ranging from Ganong’s review of Medical Physiology, speeches by Eisenhower, to African Architecture and her favorite, melancholic poetry by Mary Oliver.


Lilies Njanga has over 20 years’ work experience in the development, banking and ICT sectors, 16 of which have been in international development organisations with a focus in the health and education sectors.

Currently, Lilies is the Africa Director at Malaria No More UK. Her immediate past engagement was with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) as the Africa Lead, Strategic Engagement and Communications for CIFF Africa Office, where she also held other roles including leading the Early Childhood Development (ECD) and NTD portfolios.

Before joining CIFF Lilies was with the Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network, working in programmes aimed at increasing access to medicines and health services; and promoting rational use of medicines. In the corporate sector, Lilies was with an IT firm, Information Convergence Technologies having started her career in banking with Equity Bank. Lilies is a Board Member of Access to Medicines Platform and Spur Afrika.

Zero Malaria Starts with Me - Draw the Line Against Malaria

Hosted by Malaria No More

Draw the Line Against Malaria campaign is a new youth chapter of the pan-African Zero Malaria Starts With Me campaign that calls on young people across Africa to unite and fight malaria by driving more action, more innovation, more funding, and more leadership to end this disease within a generation and save lives.

 This session will discuss at length the role young people can play in the fight against malaria in Africa while also looking at the global progress on malaria, African governments commitments on malaria and finally dissemination of the Draw The Line Against Malaria campaign.

 Insufficient investment in the health sector or in actions to tackle the environmental and social determinants of health is a serious obstacle to improving health outcomes in Africa, particularly considering that the continent bears the bulk of the global morbidity and mortality burden of priority diseases like Malaria.  We acknowledge that active engagement of the youth in Africa towards the fight against malaria is now even more important at a time when Africa’s attention and effort is drawn towards achieving UHC.

 Diana Mukami

Shaping Africa’s Healthcare Landscape through Inclusive Innovation

Hosted by Amref Health Innovations 

Who knew how much healthcare would be at the forefront of our daily news cycle for 2020? The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world around us and has highlighted the need for continued innovation in health care delivery. Technology plays a key and fundamental role in providing insights for decision makers to effect change and amplify impact outputs. It helps us connect the dots across the existing hierarchy of needs from the bottom up.

In a world where technology and innovation supports frontline health workers in health delivery, the pertinent question to ask is: How Might We evolve and optimize health systems in Africa to accelerate the delivery and provision of accessible and affordable healthcare, leaving no one behind? There is no doubt that technologies and innovative business practices can play a key role in addressing some of the most pressing health care challenges in sub-Saharan Africa - from innovation in data collection and analysis to global wellness and health security, to non-communicable diseases, assistive technologies and the strengthening of primary care to achieve universal health coverage without leaving anyone behind.

Championing these conversations will propagate and open up the opportunity for market linkages, sustainable impact and inclusive innovation. Existing technologies already give power of information, data and financing – directly to the people at the last mile. With money, information and data flowing smoothly through a single system, transparency and efficiency will increase. Speakers will be encouraged to share market knowledge and insights, including accomplishments and challenge and barrier tales in achieving universal health care across the continent. Join us to explore how innovation, functional partnerships and advocacy for inclusion continue to reframe and shape the future for healthcare in Africa.

4:15pm – 4:20pm EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

4:20pm – 5:20pm EAT

Town Halls & Parallel Sessions

Breakouts

5-6 town hall and/or parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include:

Town Halls:

Nice Nailantei Leng’ete

Nice Nailantei Leng’ete, 30, is an advocate for the health and rights of girls and women. She is the Global End FGM/C Advisor for Amref Health Africa, the largest African-led international organization on the continent, and founder of The Nice Place, a Leadership Academy & Rescue Centre for girls built in her home community in Kajiado County, Kenya. Ms. Leng’ete is the recipient of numerous international awards for her commitment to working within communities to promote gender equality and end harmful practices such as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage, including: the TIME100 list of the most influential people in the world; the Postcode Hero Award;  the 100 Most Influential Young Africans; the BBC Outlook Inspirations Award; the Annemarie Madison Prize; and, the Inspirational Woman of the Year Award from the Kenyan Ministry of Devolution. She is also a recipient of the Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders and Women Deliver Young Leaders. To date, Ms. Leng’ete and Amref Health Africa have helped more than 20,000 girls avoid female genital mutilation/cutting in Kenya and Tanzania through community-led Alternative Rites of Passage programs.


Evode Niyibizi

Mr. Evode NIYIBIZI is the current Program Manager for the African Youth and Adolescents Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN Rwanda) affiliated with UNFPA Rwanda.  He is also serving as the national youth focal point at the Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health Technical Working Group (ASRH-TWG) of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Rwanda.  He is committed and passionate about advancing Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights for Adolescents and Young people, ending Gender related issues and unpaid care work.


Dr. Onabanjo joined UNFPA in 1995 as a National Programme Officer and thereafter as a Programme Specialist in Swaziland and Kenya, before she served at UNFPA Headquarters as Technical Advisor, HIV/AIDS, and later as Special Assistant to the Executive Director. More recently, she has held UNFPA Representative posts in Tanzania and in South Africa. Before joining UNFPA, Dr. Onabanjo worked for Planned Parenthood as Programme Director and prior to this, she worked for the Ministry of Health in Nigeria.  Dr. Onabanjo holds a Bachelor’s Degree in biology from the University of London and a Medical Doctor degree from the University of Zambia, in addition to a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Town Hall: Youth leading the future of Africa

Hosted by UNFPA 

SDG Goal #3 seeks to ensure healthy lives and wellbeing for all at all ages. It aims to address issues of maternal mortality, new HIV infections, unmet need for family planning, adolescent births, and universal health coverage, among other things by 2030. Achieving this goal nonetheless calls for nations and stakeholders in the region to leverage on youth leadership given that over 70% of the population comprises young people below the age of 35 years. In the spirit of leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first, the session will provide an opportunity for young people in the region to engage and share their experiences on successes, challenges and opportunities to advance youth leadership in the health space in line with the mantra “Nothing for us without us”.

Vania Kibui

Vania Kibui is a public policy, human rights and advocacy practitioner with eleven years’ experience, in policy advocacy, regional and international human rights law, advocacy communications, strategic partnerships, and movement building in the global south. She has extensive experience working with state and regional legislative mechanisms, departments of heath, the judiciary, regional treaty monitoring bodies and non-state actors to increase access to essential health care services and the right to health, through critical health care policies, and integration of human rights standards from Regional to Sub-National state implementation frameworks. She is an enthusiastic advocate who believes in the power of public policy and advocacy in improved public health outcomes. She is a skilled facilitator and trainer and is passionate about influencing human rights advancements, through public policy research, and human rights based programming especially through strengthening capacity of the youth to engage with systems and processes that promote and protect the rights of women and girls access to their rights; including the right to access public services and vibrant public participation. She is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, and currently leads the Outreach and Capacity strengthening team at Y-ACT, the youth initiative at Amref Health Africa.


Sobel Aziz Ngom

Sobel Aziz Ngom is the founder and executive director of Social Change Factory, as well as a founding member of the Consortium Jeunesse Senegal (Senegal Youth Consortium), which he has chaired since October 2020. Social Change Factory is a citizen leadership center created in 2014, based on the idea that access to appropriate educational resources and professional development opportunities for young people is the key to their social mobility. 
 Sobel Aziz Ngom is a social entrepreneur who aims to transform the living conditions of Senegalese youth from passive recipients of state-sanctioned policies to active participants in shaping the policies that affect their lives. He conceives and implements local, regional, and continental initiatives, creating opportunities for partnerships with international organizations, including the European Union, UNICEF, and the MasterCard Foundation. These actions aim to empower young people, and have led to thousands of young people being informed, engaged, and equipped with the appropriate skills and values needed to create more inclusive and sustainable communities. In 2014, at the age of 23, Sobel A. Ngom was the youngest Senegalese participant in the first edition of the YALI program launched by President Barack Obama. As a result of being involved in the program and based on his commitment and vision, Sobel A. Ngom has since had the honor of being quoted as an example twice by President Obama. In 2016, Sobel A. Ngom received the Jambar Tech award for "Best Social Entrepreneur" of the year in Senegal for his program Voix des Jeunes (Voices of Youth), which has generated a total of fifteen million viewers across the sub-region. In 2018, Sobel A. Ngom was appointed to the Board of Directors of Generation Unlimited, a global partnership initiated by the United Nations that brings together a number of state, non-governmental and multinational authorities, all committed to the empowerment of young people around the world. Sobel A. Ngom was the only African leader under the age of 30 to serve on the committee. With his experience in areas related to youth development, Sobel A. Ngom has advised governments in Africa, as well as international foundations, some UN agencies, and private companies on their strategies for engaging and collaborating with youth.  Sobel A. Ngom is a graduate in Communications from the SupdeCo business school in Dakar and in Civic Leadership from Wagner College in New York. For the past ten years Sobel A. Ngom has often been invited to represent Senegalese and African youth in forums and major events around the world. While still young, Sobel A. Ngom has already received several national and international awards for his work and contribution to the empowerment of African youth. The most recent one was an invitation from Bill and Melinda Gates to join their GoalKeepers network as "champion" for ODD 4: Quality Education. Prior to founding Social Change Factory, Sobel A. Ngom worked for Ashoka Changemakers where he led the Africa Hub, a platform that brought together a network of over 2000 young Africans whom he helped guide and equip to carry out their missions as social entrepreneurs, while facilitating their access to opportunities for personal and professional development.


Tito Ovia

Tito Ovia is the co-Founder of Helium Health, Africa’s largest health-tech provider, which builds the technology and data infrastructure to make it easier for anyone, regardless of their social class or economic status, to access quality healthcare on the continent. Tito’s childhood dream was to provide world-class care to as many people as she could across Africa. Today, in her role as Head of Public Sector Growth at Helium Health, she is fostering public-private partnerships that accelerate Africa’s transition to a technology and data-driven healthcare system. Her work in African healthcare has helped make her a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient and a winner of the Future Africa Award for Disruption. When Tito is not working on fixing healthcare in Africa, she is occupied with Feminist Coalition, the women's rights advocacy group she helped found that is promoting equality for women in the Nigerian society, with a core focus on education, financial freedom and representation in public Office. She has a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Manchester.

Town Hall: Youth engagement and entrepreneurship

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

The African continent has the youngest population in the world – and it is rapidly growing. In 2015, African youth (aged 15-24) accounted for 226 million people; by 2055, this number is expected to more than double. Africa’s demographic dividend creates a unique opportunity to widely engage a new generation of citizens to participate in the continent’s development and growth. Youth-led programs that aim to engage and equip young persons with the relevant skills to influence policies and institutions are critical to harness this opportunity – and to foster environments in which African youth are given a chance to thrive and meaningfully contribute to their communities.

This Town Hall will be an informal, moderated Q&A session featuring a renowned youth leader and entrepreneur. The moderator will take questions from conference participants, submitted through the virtual platform’s interactive chat. The AHAIC Town Hall series is intended to give participants the opportunity to engage with a high-level speaker on their career, professional journey, and areas of expertise and interest.

Dr. Folake Olayinka

Dr. Folake Olayinka is a physician and global health professional with over 25 years’ experience in progressively senior leadership positions. She brings extensive experience in policy and strategy formulation and implementation; and is skilled in program leadership. Dr. Olayinka has led diverse global teams with country programs in Africa, Caribbean, Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Asia focused on building capacity of country ministries of health at national and subnational levels. Her areas of expertise include immunization, malaria, HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health. She brings deep passion for primary health care with particular focus on equity and improving health outcomes of women and children. Dr Olayinka is a Fellow of the prestigious Aspen Institute. She is also one of 24 recognized women leaders in global health participating in the first cohort of the WomenLift Health Leadership Journey – an initiative by Stanford University, working to address complex global health challenges by getting more women into senior leadership positions in global health. Dr. Olayinka also serves on several global and regional expert advisory groups including WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE). She has published numerous articles and opinion pieces in Allafrica.com, Huffington Post, World Economic forum; Mail and Guardian- Bhekisisa among others.


Evalin Karijo

Ms. Evalin Karijo is a global health specialist and a strong advocate of youth leadership, especially young women in Africa. She recently won the #Top35Under35 Kenya 2020 award for her leadership role in the health sector. She has over the past 6 years led diverse health initiatives focusing on women, adolescents and youth in the region. She is currently the Project Director of Y-ACT, Youth in Action, at Amref Health Africa – a youth led initiative which promotes Meaningful Youth Engagement in policy processes in the region. She serves on the Advisory Group of the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for UHC2030 as the Alternate Representative of the Global South to the UHC2030 Steering Committee. She holds a Master’s Degree in International Public Health and a Global Executive MBA (Health Leadership & Management). She has received various recognition, including the Management Magazine East Africa for her leadership contribution in the health sector.


Lydia Saloucou

Lydia Saloucou is Pathfinder International’s country director in Burkina Faso. She has nearly 20 years public health experience in reproductive and maternal health and organizational management in Africa. She joined Pathfinder in Burkina Faso in 2015. In her early career, she expanded her field experience in sociological research, focusing on the needs of married adolescents and evaluation of how gender issues intersect with family planning and reproductive health. She studied the management of local NGOs in West Africa and gained important experience in building organizational capacity of reproductive health NGOs in Burkina Faso and other countries. She then transitioned into managing Population Council’s office in Ouagadougou and heading its operations research and development agenda. After eight years, Lydia joined the HIV and AIDS Alliance’s Private Community Initiative, where she organized local organizations in Burkina Faso to liaise and advocate with the Burkinabe Government to integrate family planning activities into the country’s HIV and AIDS program. Lydia then took her talents to the international stage, moving to Kenya to become team leader for the International Planned Parenthood Federation in West and Central Africa. She has a post-Master in education and development, specializing in gender studies and NGO management, with degrees from University of Lille in France and the University of Ouagadougou. She speaks French and English.

Town Hall: Women’s leadership in health

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

Despite their critical role in Africa’s health and development, women remain significantly underrepresented in leadership roles across the continent. While women make up 70% of the world’s health workforce, only 25% are represented in senior leadership positions. This session will adapt a gender lens to look at leadership in Africa and will examine how more women can claim seats at the decision-making table. The session will tackle gender inequality and create a platform for exchanges on strengthening women's leadership and igniting action across sectors to address discriminatory norms and practices.

This Town Hall will be an informal, moderated Q&A session featuring renowned female leaders in the health space. The moderator will take questions from conference participants, submitted through the virtual platform’s interactive chat. The AHAIC Town Hall series is intended to give participants the opportunity to engage with a high-level speaker on their career, professional journey, and areas of expertise and interest.

Parallel Sessions

Dr Richard Mihigo, MD, MPH

Dr. Mihigo is a senior public health specialist with over 25 years of experience in designing, implementing and evaluating disease control programmes at national and international levels. He joined WHO in July 2004 and is currently the Coordinator of Immunization & Vaccines Development (IVD) in the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo; a position he has held since 2014. In this position, Dr Mihigo coordinates WHO’s technical support to Member States in the African Region in the planning, monitoring, and evaluation of immunization programmes.  This includes supporting the development of policies, norms, and standards for national immunization programmes including vaccine regulation and research, establishing and strengthening partnership coordination mechanisms between countries and supporting resource mobilization efforts for national immunization programmes. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in January 2020, Dr Mihigo has been supporting WHO’s response to COVID-19 in the African Region as Deputy Incident Manager and is coordinating WHO’s efforts to support countries’ preparedness and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines. Dr Mihigo holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Kisangani, DR Congo and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. A national from Rwanda, Dr. Mihigo has worked from 1994 to 2003 at various senior level positions in the national health system of his native country including managing the National Immunization Programme from 2000-2003.


Sibusiso Hlatjwako

Sibusiso is an experienced public health and policy practitioner.  He has a Master’s in Public Health from the University of Pretoria, a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Witwatersrand University and a Bachelor of Nursing Science. He has expertise in health advocacy, public affairs, public health, communication and reputation management. He has worked as a Public Affairs Director for the Brunswick Group – a global communication advisory firm that helps clients navigate the interconnected worlds of business, politics and society to build trusted relationships with all stakeholders. He has also worked as a Public Affairs Director for the Africa Region at Aeras. He has worked in multiple country projects in managerial positions for more than 10 years. His experience includes working for international and local organizations including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Pretoria, Intrahealth International where he acted as Country Director. He has worked for The Aurum Institute as a Health System Strengthening Technical Advisor and as a Project Director for the Tobacco Taxation Project at the University of Cape Town. Sibusiso has worked on health systems strengthening projects in South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho, Zambia, Eswatini, and Malawi. He is passionate about health equity and advancing health innovations to solve the world’s pressing challenges.


 Dr Ama Pokuaa Fenny

Dr.Karim Bendhaou (MD, MBA) has served as President of North and West Africa operations (40 countries of Africa) for Merck for over 18 years till September 2018. Since then, he heads the Africa Bureau and coordinates all of Merck’s corporate, strategic and executive decisions in Africa. In August 2019, he was appointed as Africa Engagement Committee Chair of the IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations). He holds a Doctorate in Medicine from Algiers and Paris, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. A real pioneer, he has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for almost 22 years, building up strong pan-African organisations, gaining extensive experience in biotech medicines and bio similars, and leading a successful enterprise; all while keeping the patient in mind and increasing the commitment of the organisation to the UNDG and to high ethical values. In 2007, he was one of the initiators of the joint program with the World Health Organization (WHO) for the elimination of Schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease in Africa. Passionate about Africa, he is highly committed to driving the continent forward, helping through public-private partnerships, to lead the improvement of health care with a focus on Digital Technology and adoption of innovative ideas. Through the various corporate social responsibility projects, he has worked together with governments and Non-Governmental Organisations to assure access to treatment. He has recently been involved in equitable access to vaccines through the dissemination of technology allowing the manufacture and local filling of the vaccine. He is also a sponsor of several start-ups fighting against falsified medicines and others working for the establishment of a system ensuring the supply sustainability for Africa regardless of the events that may affect the planet. He is member of different Pharma associations and organisations: PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America), LEEM (Les Entreprises du Médicament), GEIP (Groupement des Exportateursde l’Industrie Pharmaceutique), LEMM (Les Entrerprises du Médicament au Maroc), SEPHIRE (Syndicatdes Entreprises Pharmaceutiques Innovanteset de Recherche) and Africa Engagement Committee Chair of the IFPMA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations).

 


Sanjay Gandhi is Vice President at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Vaccines. He is Medical Lead for Gavi eligible countries and Vaccine development work in South East Asia.  He is qualified Public Health Specialist. His professional career spans over 28 years working with different entities like Government, WHO, International NGO (PATH) and Industry, mostly in field of Vaccinology. Surveillance, Clinical Development and Access defines his Vaccine work.  He consider himself to be privileged alumnus of ‘Advance course in Vaccinology (ADVAC)’ organized at Annecy, France by Fondation Mérieux & Université de Genève. He is guest faculty at few Institutes in India and have couple of publications in National and International Journals, to his credit.

Vaccine Research, Development and Manufacturing on the African Continent

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

The coordination and collaboration of diverse partners – including governments, academia, foundations, the private sector and more – to accelerate the development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in record time is a remarkable testament to modern scientific capabilities. However, as the international community continues to advance COVID-19 vaccine research, development, manufacturing, and distribution, the available vaccine supply currently falls far short of global demand.

WHO has noted that Africa is too often at the back of the queue for new technologies and public health interventions, including vaccines. Africa accounts for over 15% of the global population, yet less than 1% of the world’s vaccine production. In addition, even though the region still imports 70%-90% of pharmaceuticals used in Africa, local manufacturing is poised with untapped capacity that can be urgently prioritized in the face of COVID-19 related shortages. It is therefore imperative for the continent’s leadership to remain engaged and fully involved in the global research and development ecosystem.

Amid the global shortfall of COVID-19 vaccines, there is growing focus on opportunities to scale up vaccine production capacity in Africa. Strengthening vaccine research, development and manufacturing capacity on the continent will set countries up to meet demand for other vaccines, and to respond to future pandemics and health emergencies. This session will explore key topics around advancing vaccine R&D and manufacturing in Africa, from expanding capacity for clinical trials to developing the nascent manufacturing industry. Experts at the forefront of driving health innovation on the continent will share their perspectives on how to leverage COVID-19 to accelerate local vaccine R&D and production in Africa, challenges to achieving this and the risks of ignoring this opportunity.

Pandemic-proofing primary health care

Hosted by PATH

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the critical importance of resilient primary health care (PHC) systems—the world’s first and best defense against the spread of infectious disease. What have we learned from this pandemic? And how can the public health community strengthen PHC to guard against the next one? During this satellite session, public health leaders will discuss how communities, local governments, private sector, and public health organizations can help build people-centered, pandemic-proofed PHC systems for all.

5:20pm – 6:20pm EAT

High-level Roundtable

Main stage








COVID-19 Vaccines and Africa: Where do we stand in the race for vaccines?

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccine innovation pipeline has advanced at an unprecedented pace – from research and development, to approval, manufacturing and delivery. Despite this remarkable progress – and despite global calls for vaccine equity – access to COVID-19 vaccines in Africa remains limited and presents a barrier to bringing the pandemic under control. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO’s Director-General, has warned of a “catastrophic moral failure” as many wealthy countries are reserving enough doses to immunize their populations multiple times over, while low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) struggle to acquire COVID-19 vaccines.

COVAX (the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, co-led by WHO, Gavi and CEPI) is currently on track to deliver at least 2 billion doses globally by the end of the year, and is expected to provide 600 million doses for about 20% of populations in African countries. In addition, the African Union’s vaccine acquisition task force has secured 270 million COVID-19 vaccines for African countries. While these initiatives are critical to expediting vaccine equity and access in Africa, they do not present long-term solutions to solve the access gap.  

COVID-19 vaccines must be available to everyone, everywhere – not only those who can afford to pay. This high-level panel discussion will highlight the latest developments around access to COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, including the role of COVAX and the leadership of the African Union, alongside key partners such as WHO, Gavi and CEPI. Featuring African and global health leaders, the panel will address challenges around the availability, affordability and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines in Africa, as well as the need for greater collaboration and scale-up of innovations to close the access gap between Africa and the rest of the world.

5:20pm – 6:20pm EAT

Guided Networking Session

Techies for UHC:

Sylvia Wamugi-Obaga

Sylvia Wamugi-Obaga is currently the Deputy Director of Advocacy, Communications and Strategic Partnerships at Y-ACT (Youth in Action), a regional initiative of Amref Health Africa that aims to mentor, support and increase the capacity of youth advocates to influence youth policy and resource priorities in the areas of gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Africa. A creative at heart, she has led several regional digital advocacy initiatives including YouthPowerHub, Y-ACT movement, and the ICPD Online Caravan.

Sylvia is passionate about social advocacy, communications and women’s right to health. She holds a Masters (Hons.) in International Communications Management (Development) from University of Warwick (UK), and a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the United States International University – Africa, with auxiliary qualifications in social & behavior change communications (SBCC), project management, technical writing and photography. She has over 12 years experience in the humanitarian sector, nine of which include leading advocacy communications in various organizations including Save the Children, Oxfam, IPAS and the Advocacy Accelerator. Her adaptability, curiosity and adventure-spirit has led her to work in humanitarian contexts such as Somalia and Sudan, and later in health development with a focus on SRHR.


Leadership for UHC

Fidel is a final year student of BSc Electrical and Electronics Engineering in Kenyatta University. Fidel is the lead inventor of the Tibavent ventilator, the first ever African designed and developed ventilator. He is the founder and CEO of AFECS LTD, a technology company. Fidel is also an IEEE Photonics Society volunteer. He is the chairperson of IEEE Kenyatta University Students’ Branch and the student representative at IEEE Kenya Section. He is the team leader of the KUCUBE nano nanosatellite project (a satellite that will be used in the prediction and mitigation of agricultural disasters). Fidel is also the team leader of Electrical team for the digital learning device team (team by ministry of ICT Kenya, to develop tablets for learning in primary schools). Fidel was awarded the 2020 United Nations person of the year- principal innovator award and the UBORA 2020 project of the year Fidel has been awarded the Head of State Commendation by HE the president of Kenya in 12th December 2020. Fidel was born in 30/06/1997 in Kabarnet town, Baringo district. He went to AIC visa Oshwal primary school where he excelled and went to Nakuru High School. In his form 3, he transferred to Friends school Kaimosi boys’ high school where he excelled and joined Kenyatta University for his undergraduate studies. Fidel has a passion on using technology to transform society and has applied his knowledge to come up with solutions for problems in the society. Fidel is also topping his class with a GPA of 76.


Dr MaqC Eric Gitau

MaqC provides strategic and technical direction, team leadership, and membership development in the community of practice that is fostering the advancement of learning in human-centered design (HCD) and adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH). He builds upon over two decades of experience working with various stakeholders including philanthropy, media, the UN, governments, and young people in various countries to design and implement high impact adolescent health and youth programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.


Jenny Njuki

Jenny Njuki is a conversational starter and is known as a firecracker! She is passionate about meaningful youth engagement, youth ingenuity and creativity. She champions the innovation of youth in using technology to solve global challenges and accelerate economic growth in Africa. Jenny has over five years of experience in youth-led programmes. This includes strengthening advocacy for youth inclusion in decision making.

Jenny serves as Advocacy Communications and Partnership Officer for the Youth in Action (Y-ACT) programme with Amref Health Africa. She represents Africa on the Global Youth Council: Tech for Health. In this role, she advises the global coalition on leveraging digital innovation for universal health coverage: Digital Transformation for UHC 2030.

Most recently she was appointed by the Executive Office of the President of Kenya to represent youth and serve on the Generation Unlimited Kenya Steering Committee. Jenny provides strategic leadership and oversight on the initiative to achieve the GenU strategic objectives in Kenya.

Networking Platform (Will run concurrently with High-Level Roundtable)

Guided networking sessions, convened as virtual happy hours will provide a platform for participants to informally connect and engage with each other. The interactive sessions will also include an inspirational feature from leaders in health care and allow for networking between participants.

Rebuilding Equitable and Accountable Health Systems in Post-Conflict Settings

 Dr. Kawa Tong
 Dr. Caroline Tatua

 Makoy Samuel

Hosted by Amref Health Africa in South Sudan

Conflict-affected settings tend to have the worst health indicators and the most fragile health systems. These settings are often at the tail-end of the global progress towards UHC. During conflict, service delivery is halted, resources such as equipment and infrastructures are compromised, human resources for health are dispersed and  governance / leadership structures are significantly undermined. Following the cessation of hostilities, several international and local actors - differing in nature and legitimacy - take part into the rebuilding process. Stakeholders struggle to draw a balance between the pursuit of sustainable health system outcomes and the provision of effective responses to immediate health needs. Within this particularly complex and non-linear process, systematic equity and accountability are seldom granted the attention they deserve. The panel would explore and discuss key elements and experiences which successfully fostered the rebuilding of more equitable and accountable health systems in post-conflict settings including how UHC is not left unattended and prioritized.

6:20pm EAT

Close of Day 2



Wednesday, 10 March 2021

2:00pm – 2:10pm EAT

2:10pm – 3:10pm EAT

Plenary 3: Our Health, Our Rights: UHC and Accountability for All

Dr. Susanne Weissbaecker

Susanne took on the role as Global Head of Access to Medicines early in 2018 and is leading Takeda’s strategy to enhance access to innovative medicines for patients in underserved communities for complex and rare diseases, while strengthening health systems by catalysing partnerships to drive long-term impact. Prior to this role, Susanne was Head of Patient Access and Services for Takeda’s Europe and Canada business and successfully developed and implemented patient engagement programs. As a physician, Susanne has broad knowledge and experience gained over 15 years in the areas of public health and access. This includes roles at the World Economic Forum where Susanne led the business health and healthcare community as well as in consulting on access in emerging markets.

 

Dr. Anastacia Tomson

Anastacia Tomson is a medical doctor, author, and activist in the field of LGBTQIA rights. A queer-identified woman herself, Anastacia uses her lived experience and professional training to inform her work in educating and spreading awareness around SOGIE minorities. Her activism work sees her engaging with the general public, with parent- or ally groups, with cultural communities, with NGOs and governmental agencies, and with LGBTQIA populations directly. She advocates for improving access competent care for queer-identified people in South Africa. She regularly works with such varied groups as the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Human Rights, the UNDP, the South African Judicial Education Institute, as well as regularly lecturing undergraduate medical students at UCT on issues of gender, and SOGIE minorities. Working together with compounding pharmacists, Anastacia was instrumental in driving the process for making injectible estradiol valerate, the international gold-standard for feminsing gender affirming hormone therapy for trans patients, available in South Africa. Anastacia’s globally-available 2016 memoir, Always Anastacia, offers a candid, intimate window into her experiences, with the hope of cultivating understanding, compassion and empathy towards diverse identities. Among her accolades, she has been recognised as a Mandela Washington Fellow, as one of the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans, and as one of The Young Independents’ Mzansi 100. She has also been published in the peer-reviewed, open-access South African Journal of Bioethics and Law, on the subject of medical ethics in gender-affirming care. Experienced both in public-sector healthcare and in clinical trials, Anastacia now offers primary care services in the private sector in her home town of Cape Town, South Africa. When she’s not at work, she can often be found cooking up a vegan storm in her kitchen, or out running on a scenic trail.


Dr. Esther Njoroge-Muriithi

Dr. Esther is Smile Train’s Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, a position she has served for 5+ years. During her tenure, the programs have grown in scale, spanning 40 countries with 254+ partner hospitals and reaching over 128,000 patients; increasing access to comprehensive cleft care while improving safety and quality. Dr. Esther spearheaded the formation of the Africa Medical Advisory Council, formed for the first time in 2019. Through her leadership, Smile Train Africa is now accredited as an International Training Centre for American Heart Association’s BLS and PALS. Responsible for the strategic direction of Smile Train in Africa, Dr. Esther oversees the growth and stewardship of Smile Train’s partnerships and programs across all of Africa. She represents Smile Train on the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism (CSEM) Advisory Group for UHC2030 and has served in Technical Working Groups developing National Surgical, Obstetric and Anesthesia (NSOAP) plans in Kenya and SADC region. As a passionate global health advocate, she has spoken at several major advocacy events and conferences including UNGA73 side event and the Civil Society Town Hall with WHO DG, Dr. Tedros in May 2020. She was awarded Business Daily’s Top40Under40 women in 2016 and she serves on the board of her Rotary Club. Dr. Esther is passionate about children and their health, an important pillar in her commitment to Smile Train. 


Renée Ngamau

Renée Ngamau is a champion for women and a strong believer in empowerment and inclusivity of all stakeholders, in decisions that affect their lives. She is a Business Leadership Coach at ReneeSense, a coaching and training institute that specialises in helping entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. She is the convenor of SuperCircles for Women in Business. Renée is also an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. A holder of a Masters in Commercial and Banking Law degree from the University of London, she has practiced commercial banking and business law in Kenya and in the UK.  Renée is a media personality and was the host of Capital in the Morning with Renée and Maqbul, a critically acclaimed weekday morning drive show on the highly celebrated Capital FM radio station. She is an experienced life coach, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer, and Hypnotherapist with over 9years’ experience in supporting leaders to confidently start and grow successful businesses. Her goal is to train and support one million successful confident Women entrepreneurs on the continent and beyond. She has been Rewarded by the Graca Machel Trust for her work advancing women in Africa and is one of seven African Women in Media Champions. She currently serves as the Chairperson of Amnesty International Kenya.

 

Mah-Séré Keita

Mah-Séré Keita is a global health professional with 17+ years of research, patient care, project development and management experience. Over the course of her career, she has worked primarily on improving disease detection and response in low-resource settings. Keita is currently the Director of Programs at the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), and has previously held leadership positions at the Catholic Relief Services -Mali, American Society for Microbiology (ASM), and Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH). She holds a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) with a focus on infectious disease epidemiology and a Certificate in Health Finance and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in pre-medicine biology from Boston College.


Hon Ms. Marie Rose Nguini Effa

Hon Marie Rose Nguini-Effa is a Member of National Assembly of Cameroon Member of the Pan African Parliament and Member of the Cameroon-France Friendship Group. She is the Chair the National Commission for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, Vice-Chair of the Social, Cultural and Familial Affairs Committee and currently serves as an Advisory Council Member of the Global Parliamentary Alliance (GPA). Hon. Nguini-Effa is an economist and she is globally recognized as a parliamentary champion. She continues to lead efforts that advance SRHR, UHC harmonization of medical legislation across Africa

Main Stage

In September 2019, only several months before COVID-19 swept across the world, leaders committed to achieve UHC in a key declaration that underscored the right to health for all. Today, with millions of people affected by the pandemic, the need to ensure the health and rights of all individuals has never been more urgent. If we are truly to achieve Health for All, we must hold leaders accountable to their commitments. This session will focus on the need for stronger accountability to drive tangible progress when it comes to delivering the right to health for all. This plenary will hold countries accountable to their UHC promises and ensure that programs are designed to be both effective and financially sustainable; highlight countries who have made strong commitments to UHC and followed through; and discuss the existing health laws in place that are legally backing UHC and the level of awareness, or lack thereof, that populations have around these laws.

3:10pm – 3:15pm EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

3:15pm – 4:15pm EAT

Parallel Sessions

Breakouts

5-6 parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include:

Richard Dzikunu

Richard Dzikunu the facilitator for the Young Experts: Tech 4 Health initiative, a platform for young people to shape and guide work towards achieving UHC by leveraging frontier and digital technology. In 2018, Richard received the first-ever Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Action Campaign Award from the UN during the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn, Germany. The award recognized Richard's work in empowering marginalized groups (women, girls, young people, and persons with disabilities) to be involved in the SDGs dialogue in Ghana and for influencing the Ghana Adolescent Health Policy and Strategy to meet the demographic needs of young people


Tito Ovia

Tito Ovia is the co-Founder of Helium Health, Africa’s largest health-tech provider, which builds the technology and data infrastructure to make it easier for anyone, regardless of their social class or economic status, to access quality healthcare on the continent. Tito’s childhood dream was to provide world-class care to as many people as she could across Africa. Today, in her role as Head of Public Sector Growth at Helium Health, she is fostering public-private partnerships that accelerate Africa’s transition to a technology and data-driven healthcare system. Her work in African healthcare has helped make her a Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient and a winner of the Future Africa Award for Disruption. When Tito is not working on fixing healthcare in Africa, she is occupied with Feminist Coalition, the women's rights advocacy group she helped found that is promoting equality for women in the Nigerian society, with a core focus on education, financial freedom and representation in public Office. She has a degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Manchester.


Honorable Johnson Sakaja

Hon. Sakaja Johnson CBS, M.P is the Senator of the Capital of Kenya, Nairobi City County. He is the Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare and the Chairman of the Kenya Young Parliamentarians Association, distinguishing himself as an astute legislator and orator addressing the most contentious issues of the Nation. He has served as a nominated MP in the 11th Parliament (2013 -2017) and has been awarded Chief of the Order of the Burning Spear (CBS) First Class by the President of the Republic of Kenya for his extensive legislative work in the 11th and 12th Parliament. Senator Sakaja has co-authored a book in collaboration with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ - Kenya Chapter) on Representation and Fiscal Decentralization. He has been nominated among top 100 Future Leaders: The World’s Most Influential Young People in Government (2018) by Apolitica and awarded Change Maker of the year 2016 at the African Achievers Award, in recognition of his leadership skills and youth empowerment in Kenya. The Senator has continually proven that young people have the competency and right to serve as leaders in all spheres, he has championed the right for inclusion of Youth, Women and Marginalized groups in politics and governance.


 Dr. Natasha Salifyanji Kaoma

Dr Shakira Choonara is an award-winning independent public health practitioner, bold activist, renowned public speaker and Operation Smile Ambassador for South Africa (SA). She is a dynamic and budding social entrepreneur, the recent founder of a development consultancy firm. In 2018-2020 she served on the inaugural African Union Youth Council and is presently the AMREF Africa AHAIC Commissioner for universal health coverage. This past year she has also served as the Guest Editor of the Feminist Journal, Agenda published by Taylor and Francis.

Dr Choonara is a recipient of a number of prestigious awards including being listed as the Mail and Guardian 50 Most Powerful Women, Destiny Magazine’s Most Powerful Woman under 40, 100 influential Young Africans and the Woman of the Year in Health in SA. Dr Choonara attained her PhD (Public Health) at the age of 27 years, an Honours (Cum Laude) and Masters in Demography from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

“She is widely recognised for her work and experience in health policy and systems research, specifically universal health coverage, gender equality, sexual and reproductive health rights, non-communicable diseases, HIV and youth development.”

Dr Choonara has spearheaded a range of health projects in research and advocacy across the African continent and is currently working on an impressive list of projects linked to the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization, international and regional non-governmental organizations. Outside of healthcare, she serves on the Board of the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, deepening non-racialism in SA, she is passionate about strengthening community level work and as an all-rounder, she is currently pursuing acting classes.

Youth Leadership in Global Health

Hosted by Transform Health

Africa is currently the youngest continent. It is estimated that Africa’s population will grow to over 2.2 billion by 2050 (from around 1.2 billion in 2015). In order to satisfy the healthcare needs of this growing population and harness the demographic dividend, African governments, working with the private sector and civil society, will have to make use of digital technology and data to transform health systems to achieve Universal Health Coverage.  Across the continent, young people are driving innovation in digital health and advocating for greater youth leadership and engagement in shaping health policies and services. Greater commitment and investments in young people’s engagement, capacity building and advocacy are essential to harness the potential of more African youth to drive equitable progress towards health and development goals.  This session will focus on the importance of leveraging the knowledge and dynamism of African youth to shape health policies and programmes in a digital, post-COVID world; highlighting the role of platforms like Transform Health and Young Experts: Tech 4 Health in supporting youth to influence the digital health agenda; and how to mobilise greater investment in youth and opportunities for them to shape digital transformation in health, so that countries across the continent can achieve UHC by 2030.

Multi-sectoral collaboration in nutrition programs in Africa and relevance to primary health care and Universal Health Coverage

Hosted by Nutrition International



This session will showcase two projects that adopted innovative multisectoral approaches in implementation of nutrition strategies that improved the primary health care and UHC in Africa. The speakers will discuss the best practices and lessons learnt from these projects implemented at sub-national level in Ethiopia and Senegal. The impact and experiences from the interventions and their replicability and scalability will be critical in ensuring their adaptation and attainment of primary health care and Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Nutrition International and partners will present the case studies to demonstrate the importance of partnerships with governments, donors and other development stakeholders in delivering nutrition services to those who need them, especially women and children. The session will discuss two nutrition initiatives: Integrated Nutrition Project for the Kolda and Kédougou Regions (PINKK) in Senegal and Technical Assistance for Nutrition (TAN) to Seqota Declaration in Ethiopia. The session will aim to answer the following questions:

  • How can multi-sectoral approach in nutrition programs help communities to receive essential PHC services and contribute to UHC?
  • What is the role of technical assistance in supporting governments to plan, implement, monitor and evaluate multi-sectoral programs?
  • What is the role of governments and donors in scaling up key nutrition interventions in the context of UHC and the COVID-19 response?

Partnership for Primary care: Transforming the delivery of public primary healthcare

Hosted by Amref Netherlands

 Natasha Sunderji

 Dr. Andrew Mulwa

 Dr. Catherine Kanari

 June Omollo

 Karnika Yadav

 John Ponsonby

According to the World Health Organization, strengthening primary care is the most efficient, fair, and cost-effective way to achieve health impacts. In addition, in line with the WHO, Kenya Vision 2030, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta identified universal health coverage as one of his “Big Four” objectives.

The Partnership for Primary Care (P4PC) is the first public-private partnership (PPP) model for primary care in Africa. By leveraging complementary capabilities and by sharing risks and responsibilities, Amref Health Africa, the government of Makueni County, Kenya, and Philips aim to transform the primary healthcare system in a financially sustainable manner. The approach is holistic and systemic and targets both the demand side and the supply side of primary care. Moreover, a sustainable financing system and strong system management are established. Together these crucial levers generate a self-reinforcing loop, whereby improved quality leads to increased demand, which in turn leads to increased financing, again increasing quality. This session will provide insights in the results of the feasibility study, how partners plan to bring the model to scale, and how the aimed PPP is structured.

Emmanuel Lubanzadio

Emmanuel Lubanzadio is the Head of Public Policy, Government & Philanthropy for Sub-Saharan Africa on Twitter's Public Policy EMEA Team. Twitter Public Policy focuses on policy issues posed by the continuing spread of digital technology and web-based communications services around the world. These issues range from freedom of expression, online safety, copyright, privacy, and Internet freedom. In the context of civic events such as elections, Public Policy ensures that political actors find a natural home on Twitter. The Policy team also manages and directs Twitter’s corporate social responsibility work by collaborating with NGOs active in the areas of freedom of expression, online safety, and emergency disaster recovery.

 Prior to joining Twitter, Emmanuel spent his professional tenure in the realm of International Development, and Government Relations in Germany, Ghana, and the U.S. He holds a B.A. in International Relations, a Graduate Certificate in Applied Politics and a M.A. in International Development.


Elizabeth (Lizz) Ntonjira

Lizz Ntonjira is currently the Global Director of Communications at Amref Health Africa, the largest health development organization in Africa. In her role, she leads and mentors a capable communications team responsible for program communications, institutional messaging and offers strategic guidance for Africa, Europe and North America communication teams. She is also a youth advocate and the author of the book #YOUTHCAN, a collection of powerful, inspiring and challenging stories from youth breaking barriers across 22 African countries. For her work across various sectors, she has received numerous awards including being listed as one of the 100 Most Influential Young Africans.  Lizz is committed to changing the African narrative by showcasing compelling stories that reflect Africa’s improving development agenda. Lizz holds a bachelor’s degree in law from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa, a post graduate Professional Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in the UK, and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Strathmore Business School. She is also a Public Policy Fellow from Virginia Commonwealth University in the US, and a recipient of former US President Barack Obama’s Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders (2015).

 

Rachel Onamusi

Rachel Onamusi is the founder of VN Sync, a full-service digital agency with expertise in all aspects of digital media, with special focus on strategy development, implementation and facilitation. Her projects have ranged from marketing consulting, market research, corporate & personal brand management, product & campaign launch, political campaign media and PR, publicity strategy development and management, to technology training and certification platforms’ management. An accomplished digital media strategist and growth facilitator for major corporate global brands, Ms. Onamusi’s extensive experience has a global reach and covers both the private and public sectors. Having served clients in USA, Europe and Africa, Rachel’s passion remains supporting and driving efforts that create a lasting impact in education, health, and sustainable development. Ms. Onamusi is a graduate in Psychology from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Nigeria.


Jackie Opara

Jackie is a Nigerian science journalist and is responsible for coordinating correspondents and coverage including the Africa Science Focus podcast from Sub-Saharan Africa for SciDev.Net. She is English-speaking and won the IDRC Science Journalism Internship award in 2014. Jackie coordinates the affairs of the Nigerian Association of Science Journalists (NASJ). As a journalist, her works have been published in various parts of the world including Africa, South Africa and the UK. She has a profound interest in science journalism and science communication, she dedicates her time to speak to universities and their vice-chancellors in Nigeria on the importance of science communication. She also moderates conference sessions, one of which is moderating at the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2020) on ‘Agriculture on the front line, what the world can learn from African Scientists’


Ian Wafula

My name is Ian Wafula, a Journalist by profession currently working for BBC Africa where I host and report for The Breakdown a COVID9 special programme. I began my journey into the profession in 2012 when I joined Shine FM; Daystar University’s community radio station. I later joined KTN for my internship in August 2013 and was employed as a Reporter in 6 months. I began working under the investigations desk where I produced exposes like ‘Terror Foretold’ that exposed laxity amongst the security personnel in Garissa County leading a terror attack that left 147 people dead. The entire security team was indicted following the report. I then joined K24 in 2015 where I hosted the breakfast show Alfajiri, a news, current affairs and lifestyle show. I went on to cover Kenya’s 2017 general elections and the presidential re-run in the same year under the ‘The Daily Brief’ a daytime live news and current affairs show. I joined the BBC in 2018; I was assigned to host, produce and report for Fact Finder a media literacy and fact checking show. My experience at Fact Finder led me to find my purpose in February 2020 when started Heal The Web an initiative that aims at raising awareness on internet vices while promoting better use.


Dr. Theresa Ifeoma Amobi

Dr. Theresa Ifeoma Amobi has a PhD in Health Communication, Master of Science degree in Mass Communication, Master’s degree in Public Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communication. She is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, Nigeria, where she teaches Multimedia and Online Journalism, Broadcasting and Film, International Communication, Social Science Research and Theories of Communication. She also teaches Health Communication at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. Dr. Amobi also teaches Consumer Behaviour and Social Science Research at the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria, where she is an adjunct Lecturer. Her research interests include Health Mis/Disinformation and Conspiracy theories, Media and Gender, Nollywood Film Industry, International Communication, among others. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Africa Check, Fullfact and Chequeado; an Independent Researcher for Africa Check and other international agencies; and a member of the African Movies Academy Awards AMAA College of Screeners since 2014.

Effective Communication to Combat Health Misinformation

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

With the rapid growth of mobile technology use in Africa, as well as the rise of social media, information can spread faster than ever before. While there have been many benefits to increased mobile access and digital communication, there are also downfalls. For example, in our increasingly interconnected world, the COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by misinformation and rumours about the disease – including its origin, transmission, prevention, symptoms and spread. Since the start of the pandemic, COVID-19 misinformation has quickly moved through communities in Africa and around the world. This session will discuss the need to combat health scepticism and misinformation with compelling, evidence-based information; highlight challenges as well as effective strategies to address misinformation; and reinforce the importance of targeted communications to raise awareness on key health issues.

Ethel Makila

Ethel Makila is the Associate Director for Advocacy Policy and Communications at IAVI. She is responsible for designing and implementing innovative political, policy and science advocacy initiatives aimed at enhancing the environment for global health research and development; and leading communications initiatives related to IAVI’s Africa region programs. A seasoned science and development communication expert, she has over 10 years’ experience in stakeholder engagement for both profit and non-profit agencies in the development, agricultural research, and global health field. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Nairobi, is currently pursuing a Master of Public Policy and Management at the Strathmore University in Kenya.

 

Thabani Maphosa

Thabani Maphosa is Gavi’s Managing Director of Country Programmes, overseeing Gavi’s operations in 73 countries. The Country Programmes Department’s raison d'être is to harness the power of the Vaccine Alliance for countries to save the maximum number of lives through immunization. This is achieved through maximizing financial investments (donor and domestic), bringing the best partners to the table and driving innovative solutions. The Country Programmes Department manages Gavi’s relationships with governments and provides grant management oversight for all in-country resources. Prior to joining Gavi, Thabani held several leadership roles in World Vision International for over 16 years. Thabani is a seasoned humanitarian who has led disaster preparedness and response efforts globally. He is also recognised for introducing the use of technology in the last mile and not least for scaling up cash transfers in stable and fragile contexts. With a Master of Philosophy degree in Science, Thabani has worked in academia as a lecturer in physiology and microbiology.

 

Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija

Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija is the founder of the Nexus Hub, an innovation centre, research, social development and emergency response unit for the West Africa/Sahel region headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. She is currently Chair of the Africa Union Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance (AVDA), serves on the Global advisory board of WomenLift health and is Chief Strategist CONVINCE Africa. Dr. Alakija is former Chief Humanitarian Coordinator for the government of Nigeria and led the joint national and international Humanitarian response in the Lake Chad region between 2016-2019.


 Maysoon Loulou

Dr. Mugambi Joy is the Secretary General World Organization for Family Physicians (WONCA) Africa Region. She is the Vice President Commonwealth Medical Association East/Central/South Africa Region. Dr. Mugambi is a part-time lecturer at the Department of Family Medicine Kabarak University, Nakuru, Kenya. She is the Immediate Past Assistant Secretary General Kenya Medical Association. She has served as a medical superintendent at Eldama Ravine.  Dr. Mugambi serves in various government and non-state boards, has been the Patron Medical Students Association Kenya (MSAKE) she is the Director Comprehensive Advanced Life Support for Rural an organization that aims at training health workers working on emergency response in rural areas. In response to the Covid19 pandemic she served as Vice Chair of the Kenya Medical Association Covid19 Response Advisory Committee (CRAC), she is serving as a Member of the National Response Covid19 Mental Health Sub-committee and was part of the team that implemented a National health workers mental health program. Dr. Mugambi is also trained and certified on vaccinology by East Africa Center for Vaccine and Immunization (ECAVI). Dr. Mugambi is one of the first Kenyan trained female Family Physicians from Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya. She is passionate about Quality Primary HealthCare, Community engagement, Health Equity and Planetary health. On her free time she loves hiking, bird watching and farming.

Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

The global spread of COVID-19 has been accompanied by the proliferation of misinformation about the virus. In February 2020, WHO warned about the emerging ‘infodemic’: “an over-abundance of information – some accurate and some not – that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.” Some of the widely shared misinformation around COVID-19 includes conspiracy theories and myths about unproven treatments, false cures and anti-vaccine messages. During health emergencies, such misinformation undermines efforts to end the epidemic and threatens the safety of emergency responders. Anti-vaccine messages often disproportionately affect vulnerable or marginalized communities, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy risks impacting the acceptance and uptake of these vaccines. Governments, public health officials, civil society, the private sector and all partners must be prepared to address vaccine hesitancy, including country- and context-specific concerns or misconceptions. This panel discussion will highlight efforts across Africa to counter vaccine hesitancy and encourage uptake of COVID-19 vaccines, including community engagement strategies and experiences, as well as the importance of building trust in vaccines and immunization beyond COVID-19. 

Zwelethu Bashman

Mr Zwelethu (Zweli) Bashman currently serves as the Managing Director of MSD South Africa & Sub-Saharan Africa. He joined MSD on 1 January 2020 as Director HIV & Vaccines. Successes during his tenure as HIV & Vaccines Director included the signing of voluntary license agreements with low cost manufacturing partners to allow the marketing of generic versions of MSD’s HIV medication, expanding access to treatment for people living with HIV and Aids in Africa. Prior to joining MSD, Zwelethu held various roles within the pharmaceuticals sector. He started his career in the industry at Schering-Plough in 2006, where he worked in sales and product management. His commercial experience grew at Adcock Ingram, where he led several commercial operations including HIV, Cardiovascular/CNS/Dermatology as well as Hospital Fluids. Between 2017 and 2019, Zwelethu expanded his responsibilities and relocated to East Africa where he led the key account operations for Cipla Pharmaceuticals across Sub-Saharan Africa. Thereafter he joined Merck Biopharma as Head of Marketing for all English & Portuguese speaking African countries. In his role as MD Zwelethu will continue to drive MSD’s Africa strategy, which has seen the company invested heavily in finding scientific solutions to the world’s most challenging diseases. He will continue driving MSD’s strategic objective of broadening patient access to innovative medicines as well as contribute to increasing vaccine coverage rates across the continent.


Camilla Knox-Peebles

Camilla Knox-Peebles has 25 years of experience in the humanitarian and international development sector. As Chief Executive of Amref Health Africa UK, Camilla leads a team whose primary focus is to develop partnerships and raise funds for Amref’ s programme and advocacy work strengthening health systems and increasing access to healthcare in Africa. Amref UK generates around £5 million each year in fundraising income from institutional grants, trusts and foundations, corporate partners and individual giving. Before joining Amref Health Africa UK, Camilla was Deputy Humanitarian Director at Oxfam International where she oversaw Oxfam’s global work on public health, water and sanitation, capacity development of local partners, and Disaster Risk Reduction. 

She also led the global technical and management support to high-profile humanitarian crises including the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. She was instrumental in raising funds for Oxfam’s work, securing and subsequently leading a number of high-performing multi-agency partnerships. Camilla is also a skilled public speaker and throughout her career has represented the charity sector at high-level events and in the media. Camilla has a BA in Social Anthropology with Indonesian Studies from SOAS University of London and an MSc in International Health from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. She has lived and worked extensively in Asia and Africa.

Tackling Cancer Through Sustainable Health Care Systems

Hosted by MSD

Cancer is one of the fastest expanding deadly diseases in Africa. It already affects hundreds of thousands of individuals, and unless governments come together to act soon, millions more will pay the price. The most striking fact about the burden of cancer is that interventions to prevent and treat many cancer types already exist. Turning the tide on cancer requires the same urgency and collaboration that we need to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. The integration of cancer into health systems as part of UHC help us achieve a reduction of premature mortality for cancer and transform the lives of millions of people. While some progress has been made with nearly 50% of the countries in the region having a National Cancer Control Plan (NCCP), much work still need to be done to understand the impact of these NCCP in meeting population needs and how the gaps need to be integrated into health systems development post COVID-19.

4:15pm – 4:20pm EAT

Break / Creative Interlude

Creative interludes will allow for pressing health issues to be explored in a unique and compelling manner and will bring a human touch to the virtual event. Interludes will include artistic performances such as music and spoken word poetry, videos and audience engagement polls.

4:20pm – 5:20pm EAT

Parallel Sessions

Breakouts

5-6 parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include

Patricia Karani

Born 1981 in Nairobi, Kenya – currently residing in Nairobi.

Holds a university degree in Sociology and Economics as well as a higher advanced diploma in Human Resource Management; has 10 years’ experience in the Human Resource Management field and is currently working in the food and hospitality industry.

Diagnosed when she was about 18 or 19 years old after her first facial swell almost 10 years earlier.

Other HAE patients in her family: Grandmother (died from an HAE-related swelling to her neck), father, and two brothers.


Eda Selebatso

Eda Selebatso is a mother of four children, two of whom have rare conditions. Eda founded Botswana organisation for Rare Diseases (BORDIS) with her husband after experiencing the challenges that families affected by rare diseases in Botswana deal with. Eda is the current Chairperson of BORDIS. She holds a PgD in Project Management and a BSc in Biology and Chemistry. Eda is passionate about human development issues. Her career spans about two decades in the health, conservation, education and mining sectors. During her career she has supported organisations achieve their business goals. She is experienced in project management, PMO management and support, stakeholder management, risk management, quality management, Programme management, Strategic management, sustainable development, business continuity management, health and environmental management, performance management among others. Eda has led and contributed to several flagship innovations in her country in her career. Her career was interrupted in 2014 when she resigned to take care of her children and support them through their health challenges. She continues to apply her skills as a pioneer in rare diseases in Botswana and globally. She serves in different global rare diseases organisations like UN NGO committee for Rare Diseases, Rare Diseases International, International Gaucher Alliance, International MPS Network and International Rare Diseases Research Consortium. She believes a person with a rare condition is equally worthy of life as any human being, and has potential to contribute to society. Eda is currently working on different programs to address health inequities and social injustices that rare disease patients and their families are faced with daily.


Waihiga Mwaura

Waihiga Mwaura is an award-winning Kenyan journalist and Special Projects Editor and news-anchor at Citizen TV in Nairobi, Kenya. He is the 2018 BBC Komla Dumor award winner, 2015 Mohammed Amin Africa award winner and a 3-time Media Council of Kenya AJEA nominee. He has moderated panel discussions on varied topics in Nairobi, Lagos, and London for Citizen TV, the London School of Economics, World Bank and BBC, among others.


Dr Priya Balasubramaniam

Dr. Priya Balasubramaniam is a public health professional with over 20 years of experience in large scale implementation research, education and program planning in academic, non-profit and government settings. Her interests and expertise are in public policy, health systems strengthening, universal health, role of the private sector in health and health technology innovation directed at strengthening health systems in low and middle-income countries. She has a multi-disciplinary background and has assisted in shaping health system capacity and research in India, Southeast Asia, East Africa, the United States and Canada with demonstrated success with field-based mandates as well as in strategic program development roles in developed and emerging heath markets. She is director of the Centre of Sustainable Health Innovations, Singapore/India and co-founder of the tripartite- Innovation for Universal Health Collaborative to initiate south-south dialogues around leveraging low-cost technological innovations and new models of healthcare in Asia and Africa. She is also co-founder of the Mutual Learning Platform for Mixed Health Systems that convenes the private sector and public health stakeholders for evidence sharing and building   interventional capacity for stronger health systems. In her current position as Senior Public Health Scientist at the Public Health Foundation of India, she directs the Universal Health Coverage Initiative (www.uhcindia.org), one of India’s seminal health policy exercises on health system reform and co-authored the Government of India’s High Level Expert Group recommendations on universal health coverage as part of the country’s 12th Five Year Plan.  Dr. Balasubramaniam’s other projects at include developing a research agenda for Urban Health in the region (spanning social innovation, governance and public-private sector collaborations in health). She also spearheads projects around health services delivery that includes a partnership with the Consortia of Affordable Technologies (CamTech) which mentors and seed-funds early stage social impact health innovations in Asia and Africa and the Grand Challenges Grant winner, the Biodiaspora Partnership that tracks and models infectious and vector borne disease through human movement patterns. She has also been a frequent advisor on health systems and policy to numerous multi-bi lateral organisations including WHO, IDRC Canada, the European Commission, the World Bank, the Wellcome Trust, USAID, DfID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Balasubramaniam has authored several reports, policy briefs as well as peer-reviewed publications over her career as both a clinician and researcher. She works closely with municipal and state governments and served on a taskforce on Primary Healthcare constituted Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and is member of the Technical Review Groups on Urban Health constituted by the Ministry of Urban Development. She serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Health Governance, series editor- Globalization and Health and is regional editorial advisor of Oxford University Press’s Healthy Cities and Communities Encyclopedia. She is frequent advisor on health systems and policy to numerous multi-bi lateral organisations including WHO, IDRC Canada, the European Commission, the World Bank, the Wellcome Trust, USAID, DfID, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Dr. Balasubramaniam holds visiting faculty positions at the National University of Singapore and the Keenan Research Centre, St. Michaels Hospital in Toronto, Canada. She is also a Fellow at the Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy, at the Questrom School of Business, Boston University. She has authored several reports, policy briefs as well as peer-reviewed publications over her career as both a clinician and researcher. She serves on a taskforce on Primary Healthcare constituted Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and is member of the Technical Review Group on Urban Health Planning formed the Ministry of Urban Development in addition. Dr. Balasubramaniam’s academic background includes degrees in Public Policy and Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, International Health from the University of Texas Health Science Centre, Houston and training in Dental Public Health and Dentistry from the University of Toronto and University of Madras, India.


Dr. Susanne Weissbaecker

Susanne took on the role as Global Head of Access to Medicines early in 2018 and is leading Takeda’s strategy to enhance access to innovative medicines for patients in underserved communities for complex and rare diseases, while strengthening health systems by catalysing partnerships to drive long-term impact. Prior to this role, Susanne was Head of Patient Access and Services for Takeda’s Europe and Canada business and successfully developed and implemented patient engagement programs. As a physician, Susanne has broad knowledge and experience gained over 15 years in the areas of public health and access. This includes roles at the World Economic Forum where Susanne led the business health and healthcare community as well as in consulting on access in emerging markets.


Ursula Myles

Ursula took on the role as Country Head for South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa cluster countries in 2020, with a focus on broadening access to Takeda’s innovative medicines for patients with rare and complex diseases. To enhance access by partnering with various stakeholders and strengthening the healthcare system for long-term impact is essential.

Ursula has spent 22 years in the pharmaceutical industry, with 14 years spent outside of South Africa working in global and regional roles in Switzerland responsible for new product launches enabling a broad understanding of healthcare systems, reimbursement mechanisms and country specific challenges impacting health care outcomes.

As a nursing sister by profession and having worked in community medicine and palliative care, witnessing how a lack of disease awareness, limited or no access to innovative treatments and poor or non-existent after care services can negatively impact the lives of patients and their families, she is passionate about enabling change to improve the lives of patients and their families.

Rare diseases – the case for inclusion in the dialogue for Africa’s advancement towards UHC

Hosted by Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Takeda believes access to healthcare, medicines and vaccines should be universal. However, across the world, many people lack access to the services and treatment they need. Complex and rare diseases are hard to diagnose, treat and manage. These conditions present significant challenges in terms of the levels of capacity, and resources needed to prevent, educate and raise awareness, and the specialized clinical skills needed to screen, diagnose and treat patients. Complex and rare diseases often have greater affordability barriers. They may require highly innovative medicines, often without alternatives, and the treatment can be lifelong. Increasing access to innovative medicines for complex and rare diseases is challenging and needs collective action. It must be approached in a sustainable and targeted way, to strengthen and transform healthcare systems, at every stage of the patient journey - from awareness and diagnosis, to treatment and ongoing patient support. This session will discuss complex and rare diseases, and make the case for their inclusion in Africa’s UHC agenda.

Prof. Shabir Moosa

Prof Shabir Moosa is a family physician with an MBA and PhD. He has extensive experience in rural general practice and the development of family medicine and primary care services in both rural and urban district health services in South Africa and Africa. Shabir is deeply involved in development and research around family medicine and Community-Oriented Primary Health Care (COPC) in Johannesburg, Gauteng and Africa. He is the President of the African of WONCA (World Organisation of Family Doctors) and facilitator of AfroPHC, bringing African PHC team leaders together to advocate for PHC and UHC.

From Attention to Action on Health Systems: Driving Accountability for PHC in the Wake of COVID-19

Hosted by PHCPI

The COVID-19 pandemic has shed unprecedented light on the need for health policy making and systems that effectively address the needs of those most impacted. Securing investment in primary health care (PHC), which meets the majority of people’s health needs at every age and every stage of life, must be central to these efforts. In the context of COVID-19 vaccine rollout and pandemic recovery, this session will explore ways in-country advocates can effectively leverage global attention on health care delivery to hold governments accountable for high-quality primary health care systems. Speakers will discuss how to use data and measurement for advocacy, share strategies for engaging with global and national decision-making bodies and spotlight successful communications tactics to catalyse critical investment in PHC during and after the pandemic.

Dr Lola Dare

Lola Dare is an award-winning community physician, epidemiologist, public health practitioner, development consultant, sociopreneur and irrepressible global health advocate for women, girls, young persons. She champions application of evidence and data for policy, evaluation, and accountability demand functions of non-state actors including civil society and community-based organizations, private sector, and the media. Lola is in the forefront of advocacy for resilient, accountable right based health care services and systems strengthening driven by the PHC approach. She engages policy makers, parliamentarians, donor-funded programmes and national governments including bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental organizations. Lola has nimbly linked investments in health to social protection, with resultant multi-sector actions for large scale impact.

Lola, an innovative thought leader whose impact on global health development is expansive has served in governance mechanisms of major initiatives and is currently a member of the Transition Independent Monitoring Board (TIMB), Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. In recognition of her competence and knowledge of much needed country context to development dialogues, Lola has been awarded membership of the UK Based Game Changers Women’s Leadership network with recognition on its Wall of Wonder Women. She is President of Chestrad Global, a trail-blazing global social enterprise with network members in Africa, Europe and the Americas. Lola Dare is well published beyond her immediate spheres of influence.


Shehnaz Munshi

Shehnaz (MPH) is a health policy and systems researcher and activist with a particular interest in feminist, decolonial scholarship and praxis. She is also an occupational therapist with 10 years of experience serving vulnerable and marginalised communities in South Africa and the UK. She is the cofounder of African Health Futures, an initiative aimed at re-imagining health systems drawing on transformative, indigenous, feminist approaches to achieve health equity and social justice. Currently Shehnaz manages the Sheiham Family/Wits Programme on social determinants of health and health inequality at the School of Public Health, Wits University. She was also a researcher on a behaviour change intervention study called the 'Sonke CHANGE Trial’, which sought to determine the effectiveness of a multi-level gender-transformation model in preventing men’s use of violence against woman and girls. She is a senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at Tekano, and was named an Emerging Voices for Global Health in 2018. Shehnaz serves on the steering committee of the People’s Health Movement, a global network of grassroots health activists, civil society organisations and academics committed to advocating for affordable, accessible, equitable health for all. Her research, policy engagement and activism has focused on strengthening the implementation of a community health worker policy and primary health care re-engineering policy in an NHI context.


Dr Nkechi Olalere

Dr Nkechi Olalere is the Executive Director of Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) and steers SPARC’s vision of empowering countries with knowledge and practical tools to make access to affordable and quality health care a reality for all.

Nkechi has over sixteen years’ experience in health financing implementation. Before joining the development sector, she served as a C-suite executive in various health insurance firms operating the National Health Insurance Scheme and private health insurance plans in Nigeria. She is passionate about strategic purchasing, especially provider payment reforms, several of which she led in the private health insurance space. Nkechi’s experience in the private and public sectors gives her an interesting perspective into health system strengthening.

Nkechi is the chair of Africa Union’s (AU) Tracker sub-committee tasked with developing indicators and measures of progress for ‘More Health for the Money’. This work is an input into the domestic health financing tracker, which will complement the Africa Scorecard on Domestic Financing for Health and enable AU Member States to track progress on domestic financing, including its efficient and effective allocation and use. She has recently been appointed into the newly formed Global Financing Facility Results Advisory Group.

3:15pm –

Prof Joachim Osur

Prof Joachim Osur is the Technical Director, Amref Health Africa. He is Associate Professor of sexual and reproductive health and also the, Dean School of Medical Sciences at the Amref International University. He is a public health, reproductive health, and Sexual Medicine specialist with a wide experience in health programming in the African context. He has contributed immensely in health systems strengthening, health policy development and development of health delivery models that have impacted thousands of lives in various countries in Africa. Among others, he holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery, a Master’s Degree in Public Health, and a PhD in reproductive health; a Membership of the American College of Sexologists and a Fellowship of the European Committee on Sexual Medicine.

Legacies in Global Health

Hosted by Amref Health Africa

Many African countries remain heavily reliant on foreign aid, with donor funds making up a significant share of total health expenditures. SDG 17 aims to enhance North-South and South-South cooperation and foster relationships that are fair and beneficial to all. Yet, many major decisions specific to Africa’s health agenda – including access to and allocation of the COVID-19 vaccines – continue to be made in the Global North, while those affected by these decisions are often not even at the table. This is one of the many challenges to be explored during this session, as well as the implications of unidirectional patterns of funding, people and knowledge when it comes to Africa’s health systems. African countries must have a seat at the table in prioritizing and shaping the health agenda, and funding decisions for Africa must be driven from the global south. This session, hosted by Amref Health Africa, will examine legacies in global health decision-making, funding, design and delivery; discuss how global health institutions can reorient their work to be more accountable to the people they serve; and promote local processes, decision-making and learning (both North-South and South-South).

Johnpaul Omollo

Johnpaul Omollo is a public health professional with vast experience in health systems strengthening and health advocacy. He has extensive expertise in health policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation, health systems strengthening and program management. Currently he is the Health Research and development officer at PATH. He also serves as a member of the African Medicines Regulatory Harmonization technical working group under the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD). Before joining PATH, Mr Omollo was the National Coordinator of the Health NGOs Network (HENNET). Before that, He served as the Health Systems Strengthening Officer at LVCT health, and The Quality Control and Quality Assurance officer in an influenza effectiveness study at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Mr Omollo was a member of the Universal Health Coverage, Health Benefits Advisory Panel (UHC-HBAP), a team charged with the responsibility of designing an affordable, responsive health benefits package for the delivery of Universal Health Coverage in Kenya.  He previously served in the global Gavi CSOs steering committee and the global financing facility civil society steering committee. He holds a Master’s in Public Health.


Imali Ngusale

Imali Ngusale is a revolutionary thinker and an astounding communications and advocacy professional with over 11 years of experience in budget advocacy, health research and development and international relations and governance. She currently works as the International Advocacy Officer at DSW (Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung) supporting policy advocacy in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Imali is also the EU liaison personnel in the east African region supporting European Union collaboration through Delegations in East Africa, the African Union and DSW European Union office in Brussels. She is passionate about transformational leadership, youth empowerment, gender equality and equity in the immunization of the COVAX vaccine. Before joining DSW, Imali worked for the Government of Kenya, the United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs among other international agencies. She has a wealth of knowledge in Global Health Research and Development for Poverty Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs), policy analysis, communication for change, and innovation advocacy exhibited through still art, poetry, and animation film.


Erick Achola

Erick Achola is a seasoned policy, advocacy, and communications expert with over 10 years of regional and international experience in governance, human rights, peace building, and democracy. Erick currently works with Amref Health Africa as the Communications and Advocacy Advisor, CHReaD Project. Prior to joining Amref, Erick worked with ActionAid International Kenya as a Regional Team Leader overseeing programs and operations in the Western Kenya Partner Support Unit- covering Nyanza, Western and Rift Valley regions. He has also worked for DAI, UNDP, the Commission on Administrative Justice (Office of the Ombudsman) and the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), among other reputable organizations. In these portfolios, has contributed significantly in promoting compliance with administrative justice principles and standards, as well as promoting transitional justice, constitutional, institutional and electoral reforms in Eastern Africa. Erick has played a leading role in catalyzing and nurturing the growth of social justice movements as a means of achieving open and democratic societies committed to the values of inclusion, non-discrimination, human rights, justice, equity and equality, as well as tolerance and respect for diversity.

He holds a Master of Arts in Population Studies from the University of Nairobi, MSC in Communications Studies from Moi University, a B.A in Social Work from University of Nairobi, Kenya, and Diploma in Media and Journalism from Zetech University.


Dr. Josea Rono

Dr. Rono is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at E&K Consulting Firm a pan-African advisory and investment firm providing turnkey solutions in the healthcare, finance and technology sectors. Through E&K Consulting Firm, Dr. Rono has advised on healthcare transactions worth over US$ 20 Billion in the global pharmaceutical industry; developed strategies for healthcare businesses worth over US$160 Million; and led several health programs on behalf of over 100 unique clients in over 20 countries in Africa, Europe and the Americas. Dr. Rono’s work experience and advisory work spans the public, private, not-for-profit, international development and academic sectors in Anglophone and Francophone Africa, Europe and America. Beyond his role at E&K Consulting Firm, Dr. Rono is a co-founder and convenor of The Health Exchange (HealthX) which is a pan-African innovation dialogue platform that convenes stakeholders in the health and technology sectors to surface and discuss emerging and current health topics in the continent. HealthX not only bridges the industry-academia gaps but also brings together investors (e.g. private equity firms) and entreprenuers thus creating a pipeline of investments in the healthcare, finance and technology sector in Africa. Dr. Josea Rono is a Karolinska Institute Global Health PhD graduate, a World Bank Health Financing Consultant, a Wellcome Trust (UK) and a Swedish Institute (Sweden) Fellow. He is a recognized thought leader in Health Financing; Research and Development; Business Development; Investment Mobilization and Management; Capital Placement; and Program Management in Africa. Most recently, he served as a World Bank Advisor on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to the Cabinet Secretary of Health in the Government of Kenya. His work has attracted several awards and grants. He is a Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Silver Medalist and he has competitively won: a Wellcome Trust PhD Scholarship; an Ian Barthurst Foundation award; two Karolinska Institute Research Awards and four Sullivan Scholarships. He is well published internationally and is a regular speaker at international conferences – most recently in the DevexNature Scientific Reports and at the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Business Summit in Stockholm, the Africa Health Business Symposium (AHBS2016) and the Sustainable Inclusive Business conferences in Kenya;  Bill & Melinda Gates funded Keystone Symposium  in the USA; and the Molecular Approaches to Malaria Vaccines conference in Australia. Dr. Rono earned my Ph.D. from Karolinska Institute in Sweden and his Bachelor of Pharmacy Degree from the University of Nairobi where he was one of the Scholars of the Year. He is also an alumnus of the Leadership & Management in Health Program of the University of Washington, USA and holds an Adjunct Faculty Position at Strathmore Business School where he teaches on healthcare business. He is a fellow of the Swedish Institute Management Program (SIMP) and the Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship that is co-run by the Saïd Business School at Oxford UniversityHe holds several board appointments including at Merck Pharmaceuticals Corporation, Haltons Pharmacy – an mPharma subsidiary and Living Goods – a global champion of UHC. Dr. Rono is currently working on his first book on global healthcare business and its impact on Africa's renaissance.


Dr Catherine Kyobutungi

Catherine holds a PhD (2006) in Epidemiology from the University of Heidelberg, and a Master of Science (2002) in Community Health and Health Management.

She is the Executive Director at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). She was formerly the Director of Research and has served APHRC in several leadership roles over the past decade, having joined as a Post-doctoral Fellow in May, 2006.

Health R&D for enhanced pandemic resilience, elimination of PRNDS, and attainment of UHC in Africa

Hosted by Amref Health Africa in Kenya – Host for the Coalition for Health Research and Development (CHReaD) Project

The Coalition for Health Research and Development (CHReaD) is a conglomerate of NGOs that seeks to advocate for an enabling policy environment to facilitate research, innovation, and access to high-impact products and technologies in Kenya.  CHReaD has been instrumental in amalgamating efforts of local and international non-governmental organizations, and research institutions to create awareness on the importance of increased investments and creation of worthwhile regulations that support Research and Development (R&D) efforts towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC). Through this session, the Coalition will discuss how Health Research and Development investments are crucial in eliminating Poverty Related and Neglected Diseases (PRNDs) and why this is important in achieving UHC. The session will also present evidence from a CHReaD-commissioned study on the fiscal space for health R&D and explore practical interventions that Africa ought to prioritize in order to enhance health R&D and attain UHC.

Professor Myriam Sidibe

Professor Myriam Sidibe is the Chief Mission Officer and Founder of Brands on a Mission, a B-Corp aiming to get Brands and Companies to drive impact in health and well-being through their business models. She is also the co-founder and Chair of the Kenya National Business Compact on Coronavirus and the woman behind the multi-award winning and UN recognized Global Handwashing Day now celebrated in over 100 countries.  From within Unilever, she has created a movement to change the handwashing behaviors of one billion people, the single biggest hygiene behavior change program in the world. In addition, Myriam is a Research Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government of Harvard Kennedy School and a honorary Professor of the Practice at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She is the author of the best-selling book #1 Business Ethics Brands on a Mission : How to Achieve Social Impact and Business Growth through Purpose (Routledge 2020) and her TED talk The Simple Power of Handwashing has been viewed more than 1 million times.   She is a regular contributor to the Entrepreneur and is regularly featured in FT, Forbes, HBR, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Reuters and CNBC.


Yunia Yiga Musaazi

Executive Director of the Uganda Water and Sanitation Network, a network of more than 200 Civil Society Organizations and a Board Member of the Africa Civil Society Network. Experienced Senior leader, with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry for more than 20 years. Skilled Passionate on Strong CSO Voice to advance WASH SDG 6 financing for the Africa Water Vision 2025. Dedicated to Strategic Leadership, Organizational Health, Institutional Strengthening, Policy Reforms, and Strategic Partnerships. Strong business development professional with a Master's degree focused on International Development from American University Washington DC.


Martin Muchangi

Martin Muchangi is the Director fir WASH&NTDs at Amref Health Africa. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and is pursuing his doctor of philosophy studies in the same field.  Martin has 15 years of professional experience in the WASH sector particularly in the African context. He has devoted his career in designing and implementing innovative public health solutions that suit different contexts in Africa.  His area of expertise lies in refining the implementation science by developing and refining models that maximize public health benefits. His recent activities have involved testing various financing models for water and sanitation; economic evaluation for sanitation (cost effectiveness & cost benefits analysis), sanitation market research, health related quality of life (HRQoL), mHealth among other scientific writings that have been published in peer reviewed journals. He is a member of International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC), represents Amref at the Neglected Tropical Diseases NGO Network (NNN) and a member of various global working groups in WASH&NTDs.

Prior to joining Amref, Martin worked with Action Against Hunger (ACF) Medair in Switzerland PATH in Kenya and the Government of Kenya as a Public Health Officer and in the discipline forces in various positions.

Role of WASH in fostering women’s economic empowerment and improving sexual and reproductive health

Hosted by Amref Tanzania

Hosted by Amref Health Africa in Tanzania and Amref Health Africa in Uganda

Solid waste and sewage/fecal sludge management are the most serious environmental issues confronting urban areas in Tanzania and Uganda. Uganda still grapples with low sanitation indicators; 21% of the Ugandan population defecates in the open. WASH programs in Tanzania and Uganda, through waste management social enterprise, have demonstrated success through provision of pro-poor technologies and approaches that improve access to sanitation in urban areas, while creating and facilitating social businesses on solid and human waste sludge services through entrepreneurship groups. These approaches aim at unlocking the potentials of women and vulnerable youth groups towards transformative end-of-life waste and fecal sludge management. In Tanzania, specifically, solid waste conversion into charcoal has accelerated household solid waste separation and removal by 80% and increased monthly revenue collection by 150% among women entrepreneur groups.

Additionally, Uganda’s WASH program addresses sanitation challenges of the pro-poor communities and congested settlements in its cities through customer-centered sanitation marketing with a focus on financial inclusion. The program uses a DIAMOND model (fostering meaningful partnerships between Households, Financial institutions, Businesses and Government). This has resulted in 90,000 people having access to basic sanitation facilities, 15,106 household heads investing a minimum of $500 in the construction of basic latrines within a year, and 100 women satisfied with financial products and bank services among other outcomes.

Furthermore, most rural areas in Tanzania and Uganda, as well as peri-urban areas in Uganda, suffer an acute shortage of essential WASH services such as clean water supply, proper sanitation facilities and sewage/fecal management. These affect women and girls who are mainly responsible for fetching water over long distances, exposing them to dropping out of school, gaps in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, gender inequality and gender-based violence, including sexual assault, rape and forced early marriages. This session will examine various country programs that support the provision of WASH services, which have catalyzed improvements in social and economic wellbeing as well as sexual and reproductive health for women and girls.

Dr Margaret Agama-Anyetei

Dr Margaret Agama-Anyetei is the Head of the Health, Nutrition and Population Division of the African Union Department for Social Affairs. A senior medical doctor with specialty in clinical and neuro-psychology, she has extensive experience working with marginalized and vulnerable populations particularly women and children and key populations in conflict and humanitarian settings. She has wide management and field experience in various national, regional and international settings.

She has a very strong clinical and advocacy background in the area of HIV and AIDS. She has also worked in areas of Health policy development, Advocacy and Policy and Strategic development in the areas of HIV/AIDS and in the integration of Gender, HIV and AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health. Over the past 30 years she has held several managerial positions at national level, within the UN system and at the African Union Commission.


Emmanuel Mujuru

Emmanuel Mujuru is a qualified pharmacist, entrepreneur and businessman with a passion for the development of local pharmaceutical production not only in Zimbabwe but in Africa in general. Emmanuel has been active in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 20 years during which he gained extensive experience in pharmaceutical production, research and development, quality assurance and marketing and distribution. Chief Executive Officer and founder of Plus Five Pharmaceuticals (Pvt) Ltd a Zimbabwean based pharmaceutical manufacturing company. The company manufactures a wide range of generic pharmaceutical products. He is the Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers' Association of Zimbabwe (PMA) a national association representing pharmaceutical manufacturing companies in Zimbabwe. Treasurer ad EXCO member the Southern African Generic Medicines Association (SAGMA) a voluntary association drawing its membership from SADC member states. SAGMA promotes local production and use of generic medicines.


Mary Ampomah

Mary Akua Ampomah is a Clinical Psychologist at the Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics where the adolescent and adult SCD clinic is located. She has had the opportunity to be a part-time lecturer at the Department of Psychology of the University of Ghana, Legon and currently teaching at the Regent University of Science and Technology. She is pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Ghana, Legon. Mary is particularly interested in the psychological wellbeing and quality of life of SCD patients. She is also interested in the neuropsychology of SCD patients in Ghana. She is currently collaborating with Sickle Cell Foundation Ghana on their GENECIS tour which aims at implementing a culturally sensitive and evidence-based SCD counselling in Ghana. Ms. Mary Akua Ampomah is a Board Member, has been appointed interim Acting President and CEO. Ms. Ampomah is the 1st CEO/President of GASCDO to come from the African Continent.


Isaac Nii Ofoli Anang

Isaac Nii Ofoli Anang is a recent Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) graduate from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi - Ghana. He is currently serving as the Chairperson of the African Regional Office (AfRO) of the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF) and working as a QualityRx Pharmacy Services Associate with mPharma, Accra Ghana. Passionate about student and youth empowerment to take up revolutionary roles in healthcare, Isaac is a crusader of youth leaders in the global health workforce and he is an advocate for the pivotal role that pharmacists, especially young pharmacists, have to play in public health, access to quality, affordable and efficacious medicines; and achieving universal health coverage in sub/Saharan Africa.


Oksana Pyzik

Oksana Pyzik is the Founder of UCL Fight the Fakes chapter & Academic Chair of the wider FTF Alliance, with the organisational mission of raising awareness on substandard and falsified medical products. She is also a UK registered Pharmacist with experience across primary care, academia and in global public health.  Since 2013, Oksana has held an academic post at the UCL School of Pharmacy as a Lecturer in Global Health & Pharmacy Practice as well as Global Engagement Lead. Her teaching and research interests lie in medicines access and quality, health emergencies and global health diplomacy. She serves as a Global Health Advisor & sits on the Board of Trustees of the Commonwealth Pharmacists’ Association since 2017. As a member of the WHO-FIP SF expert working group, Oksana also advises NGOs and start-ups around global health issues such as pharmacy education, access to quality medicines and digital health. In 2015, she launched the "Outbreak of Infectious Disease & Global Citizenship Programme" a multi-disciplinary education initiative at UCL and throughout the ongoing COVID19 pandemic has been a regular contributor in the media. In 2020, Oksana was named one of Britain’s Top 35 Women under 35 by Accenture & Management Today for her work in global health.


Kawaldip Sehmi

Kawaldip Sehmi has an academic background in public health and law and has a passionate belief in improving access to services through digital health and justice services. As the managing director of an international children’s legal center, he led a team of international lawyers improving the rights of the child, including right to health, by applying Remote Courts. He has also served as the chief executive officer of an international mental health charity, specializing in niche mental health services supporting young people and adults with complex mental health, personality disorder and substance misuse problems access telehealth and digital mental health services. Kawaldip is a passionate advocate of the WHO’s human rights based approaches to health and strengthening of the institutional, legislative, policy, practice and standards framework. He believes this support is needed to achieve the health goals outlined in the Sustainable Developmental Goals 2030, specifically in SDG 3.8,.to ensure universal health coverage for all.


Dr. Yaw Asare-Aboagye

Dr. Yaw Asare-Aboagye (DVM, MS) is the Regional Clinical Operations Head for Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), Africa Regional Office where he leads the Clinical operations and Biometrics functions in the Nairobi, Kenya office. In this role, Yaw is responsible for leading a team of researchers working to develop treatments for tropical diseases that have been largely ignored by the major pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining DNDi, Yaw was an Executive Director for Global Clinical Sciences at Biomarin, a biotechnology company specializing in the development of drugs for ultra-rare diseases. At Biomarin, Yaw was part of a team that successfully received approval for four drugs globally in six years. Yaw has also held leadership positions for some of the largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies starting with Bristol Myers Squibb, Immunex, Amgen and United Therapeutics. Yaw is currently a lifetime trustee of the Ashesi University Foundation, a Seattle based foundation that supports the Ashesi University in Ghana. Yaw holds the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree (DVM) from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and an MS degree in Biometrics from Louisiana State University School of Public Health, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.


Dr Eva Njenga

Dr. Eva Njenga, MBS, is a well-respected and world-renowned endocrinologist with a vast experience and knowledge in tropical medicine, Social Medicine and Medical Anthropology. She holds a MMed from the University of Nairobi, has a certificate in Endocrinology from the University of New Castle Upon Tyne-UK and is a Social Medicine and Medical Anthropology Fellow at Harvard University. She has been practicing medicine for over 30 years and has worked in several hospitals in the country offering specialized care in diabetes and endocrine conditions management. She has also been a lecturer at the University of Nairobi’s School of Medicine for more than 10 years and continues to share her expertise with post-graduate students in various private university hospitals in the country. She Co- Chairs the NCD Intersectoral Coordinating Committee, sits on the advisory Board of Diabetes Africa, is an advisor of the African Research Universities Alliance, and is a member of the Centre of Excellence in Non-Communicable Diseases, the Kenya Diabetes Study Group, Kenya Medical Association Kenya Association of Physicians among others. She is also the overall team leader of the Ministry of Health Technical Team for Mitigation of COVID19 Pandemic and strengthening of Health Systems for UHC in the 47 Counties in Kenya. She has been very instrumental in matters healthcare in the country, so much so that her exemplary work and commitment has seen her gain recognition and conferred State Honours by HE President Uhuru Kenyatta for her distinguished and outstanding services to the nation and was bestowed upon the title, Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS). Dr. Njenga cares very much about people’s health and is a passionate NCDs champion.


 Mary Akua Ampomah

Philip is the Chairman of Association of Representatives of Ethical Pharmaceutical Industries. He has been working with Leadership and stakeholders to shape national policies that have a direct or indirect impact on the work of multinational Pharma companies in Ghana. He also worked with the FDA to launch marketing code to regulate pharmaceutical marketing. He is a trained pharmacist with with 15 years of pharma industry experience in varied roles of increasing responsibility within West Africa. Philip currently works for Novartis as EWA Cluster Business Operations/Country Head Ghana. He holds Bachelors of Pharmacy from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and Certificate in Business Administration from the Graduate School of Governance and Leadership (Almond Institute).

Why An Africa Medicines Agency, Why Now?

Hosted by IFPMA

Two years after the treaty agreed to establish an African Medicines Agency, over 40 leading organizations called Heads of State and Government to ratify the Treaty as a matter of priority. Although there has been political support, legal commitment from more countries remains to be secured for the continent-wide regulatory agency to become a reality. The Treaty has so far been signed by 19 countries, but only 8 out of the necessary 15 have ratified it.

Following the multi-stakeholder Call to AU Heads of State to Ratify the AMA Treaty, the panel will seek to bring its content to the attention of African health organizations having a stake in its implementation and explain its importance in the journey towards universal health coverage.

The session will bring patients, industry, product development partnerships and other public and private health stakeholders around the table to explain why AMA is key to optimising sustainability in the supply of medicinal and healthcare products for diseases disproportionately affecting Africa.

 5:20pm – 6:20pm EAT
Closing Session & Awards Ceremony
Dr Githinji Gitahi

A passionate advocate for pro-poor Universal Health Coverage, Githinji Gitahi joined Amref Health Africa as the Global Chief Executive Officer in June 2015. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest Africa-led international organization, reaching more than 11 million people each year through 150 health-focused projects across 35 countries. Until his appointment to Amref Health Africa, Dr Gitahi was the Vice President and Regional Director for Africa, Smile Train International. Prior to that, Dr Gitahi was Managing Director for Monitor Publications in Uganda as well as General Manager for Marketing and Circulation in East Africa for the Nation Media Group. He held progressively senior positions at GlaxoSmithKline and worked at the Avenue Group. Dr Gitahi is co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). He serves on a number of Boards, notably - Board of Directors of The Standard Group in Kenya, Board of Trustees of Safaricom Foundation and Governing Board of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and prevention (Africa CDC). Dr Gitahi holds a bachelor’s degree in Medicine from the University of Nairobi, a master’s degree in Business Administration from the United States International University; as well as a Certificate for Strategic Perspectives for Nonprofit Management from Harvard University. In December 2018, Dr. Gitahi was bestowed the 2018 ‘Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear’ (MBS) by the President of Kenya, in recognition of his outstanding contribution and commitment to the health sector.

 

 Dr. John Nkengasong

Desta Lakew leads global partnerships for Africa. In this role, she has been engaged in securing high level strategic global partnerships for Amref Health Africa. Desta has served on the Executive and Senior Management teams of Amref since 2014. Desta leads thought leadership and external engagements at the corporate headquarters of Amref working closely with global partners and the senior leadership team of Amref Health Africa. She was instrumental in the establishment and leadership of the first biennial Africa Health Agenda International Conference in 2014; leading a global south dialogue knowledge exchange platform on Universal Health Coverage in Africa and Asia; and the launching various campaigns including Communities at the Heart of UHC global advocacy campaign. Prior to joining, she was the Director of Development at a New York based foundation where she also served as Director of Marketing from 2006. She is a founding board member of the NY-Westchester Chapter of the National Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). Her experience includes various roles in USA based university teaching hospitals and consulting with international organizations including the UNDP, and Public Health Innovations. Desta holds a Masters of Public Health from the State University of New York and currently serves on Acumen East Africa’s regional advisory board and the Thematic Working Group on Private Sector of Health Systems Global.

Awards ceremony

Key outcomes of conference and AHAIC 2021 resolutions

Desta Lakew, Global Director of Partnerships and External Affairs, Amref Health Africa

Awards ceremony

Presented by Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO, Amref Health Africa

Awards will be presented for the following categories:

  1. Global Health Leadership
  2. Africa Health Leadership on COVID-19
  3. Journalism: COVID-19 coverage

Closing remarks

Dr. John Nkengasong, Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Closing Performance

6:20pm EAT

End of Conference

(Open networking platform until 7:00pm EAT)

Frequently Asked Questions

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The on- demand content will be hosted for 90 days following the event.
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