AHAIC: Decade for Action: Driving Momentum to Achieve UHC in Africa
Event details
| Date | 08.03.2021 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 18:00 |
| Speaker | See; https://ahaic.org/social-media/ |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Agenda
Monday, 8 March 2021
2:00pm – 2:30pm EATOpening Ceremony
Main Stage
- Musical performance (4-5 min)
- Opening video (4-5 min)
- Welcome Address from Dr. Githinji Gitahi, Group CEO, Amref Health Africa (10 min)
- Opening Remarks from Dr. Charles Okeahalam, Chairperson of the International Board of Directors, Amref Health Africa (10 min)
2:30pm – 3:00pm Fireside Chat: Politics for Good - Leading the UHC Agenda with Conviction, Main StageThe fireside chat will be an informal discussion between African Heads of State and health leaders, 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 Roundtable: Launch of the AHAIC Report on the State of UHC in Africa, Main StageTo 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 Break / Creative InterludeCreative 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 Plenary 1: Leadership for Change: Africa's Journey to UHC, Main StageCOVID-19 is an acute reminder of what is at stake if we do not 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. The session will open with a video featuring community voices speaking on UHC, followed by a moderated panel discussion.
5:00pm-5:05 – Break / Creative InterludeCreative 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 Parallel SessionsBreakouts
5-6 parallel sessions will run concurrently and will tackle a range of health issues. Sessions include:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Links
Practical information
- General public
- Registration required
Organizer
- Africa Health Agenda International Conference
Contact
- na