Combined Federal Campaign #9956

Health & Environment

The Group identified the following windows of opportunity for the Western Hemisphere African Diaspora to play a meaningful and sustainable role in helping solve Africa's health problems:

Standards of Health Care

The focus has to be on attaining an optimal level of standards of health care, and if health delivery personnel are given the appropriate re-education and training, Africa can achieve certain international standards appropriate to its local circumstances. The group felt that the following are potential areas of intervention for improving the standards of health care in Africa:

Patient Rights For Respect, Information And Education

• Training of Health professionals on human rights and health rights.
• Health information privacy act.
• Advocacy on increasing the health budget as a percentage of GDP.

Public Health/Environment

Environment:

• Waste disposal, sanitation and latrine systems and models, availability of potable water.
• Pollution and Eco-tourism: Strive to preserve pristine/unspoiled lands and water ways even as growth and development occurs. Penalties need to be enacted for pollution.
• Several other environmental need to be addresses including oil, erosion and maintenance of forests. (Africa absorbs a large amount of the CO2 generated by the world.)

Health

Health Care Institutions Inventory:
There is a crucial role to be played by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping expertise to profile healthcare availability as a function of population density, say within 5 km of major population centers.

Nutrition: "You are what you eat"

• Food self sufficiency and security strategies and efforts should consider the need to evaluate nutritional values.
• Resolving micro-nutrient deficiencies, which are prevalent in Africa, will require an investigation of basic nutritional ingredients available in local foods.
• Africa must re-examine food production practices, particularly in the context of local capabilities and the role that culture plays in food consumption.

Health Research: Planning and implementing research in the field of health.
A well-coordinated public health monitoring system to identify occurrences and trends early is very important. The Africa Union should:

1. Facilitate the establishment of a global health statistics and a database that would inventory modes of transmission of the major's diseases and infections.
2. Make Health Policy research a priority in setting the framework for effective health sector program planning and implementation. This process should encourage private sector participation.
3. Establish a Continental Health Research Council with an Ethics Board. Overall, the Council will be mandated to:
• Enable the Africa Union to establish a system of Awards for research done by the Diaspora Health professionals.
• Sponsor medical journals and scientific periodicals.
• Internalize medical journals by the African Diaspora.
• Introduce and encourage a research culture.
• Conduct an evaluation of what research opportunities exist.
• Provide for research training and create a research enabling environment.
• Commission and sponsor research on Africa's health issues.

Tertiary Care
Establishing and strengthening centers of maximum medical excellence was discussed, bearing in mind issues of cost and equity.

Health Education
The AU should:

• Set universal school curricula, from elementary level, incorporating: Nutrition, AIDS, TB Malaria, and Sanitation education.
• Encourage mothers to act as Peer Educators.
• Introduce radio and Internet based health information dissemination technologies including distance learning and telemedicine in training and health care delivery. Relevance and effectiveness must be taken in to account when adopting any model in this regard.
• Standardize continental training and accreditation standards for health personnel.
• Make provision for the inclusion of non-classically trained personnel to help in selected areas of health care delivery.

Priority Areas
Priority areas for the Africa Union and the African Diaspora should be:

• HIV/AIDS/TB
• Malaria
• Diarrhea/Water-borne diseases

The gravity of these conditions dictates that there should be units established at the AU level to address these areas.

Health Insurance - Monumental Task
The AU should establish Health Insurance schemes partly funded through taxes from the private sector, particularly those industries that create pollution and health hazards. The Diaspora can assist by investigating models feasible in African context.

African Union should also:

• Sponsor an annual medical conference marketed to the Diaspora.
• Establish a research fund.
• Inventory research themes relevant to Africa that can be worked on by members of the Diaspora.
• Establish research exchange programs.
• Support doctoral students in their educational programs in Africa.
• Encourage Diaspora mentorship of African students.
• Enable Diaspora representation on the editorial board of the Health Research Council.
• Facilitate the secondment of high-level African Diaspora health professionals to the Centers of Excellence.
• Establish partnerships with health care institutions that can contribute to the continental health initiatives.
• Encourage teacher and student exchange programs throughout the Diaspora.
• Encourage the development of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity.
• Endorse a systematic approach to investigating traditional remedies.

The Role of the African Diaspora in the Americas
The Diaspora's contribution to the amelioration of Africa's health challenges should be to:

• Develop and establish a broad-based professional committee.
• Create a database of professional expertise in the various health fields.
• Facilitate resource mobilization to support African efforts.
• Provide health care facilities, GIS computer-based monitoring technologies, and expert problem solving teams.
• Identify and recommend appropriate models of health care delivery.
• Mobilize technology and engineering expertise in areas such as water engineering, smokeless solar energy, and facilities for disabilities.
• Identify expertise in micro-nutrient deficiency related diseases (e.g. anemia), breast feeding schemes, and GEM and impact analysis.
• Adopt institutions on the continent, and assist with the recruitment of volunteers from the Diaspora.
• Encourage the direct participation of women in the various aspects of the health sector in the Diaspora.
• Mobilize satellite and Internet radio resources for use in distance learning, utilizing HBCU capabilities telemedicine.