First Lady welcomes World Health Summit advance team

HEALTH          

KAMPALA - The First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports Mrs. Janet Museveni has welcomed the World Health Summit advance team.

The team is the country in preparation for the World Health Summit regional meeting being organized and hosted by Makerere University in partnership with the Government of Uganda.

The World Health Summit, one of the world's leading strategic forums for global health with a mission of improving health worldwide, brings together leaders from politics, science and medicine, the private sector and civil society to set the agenda for a healthier future.

The 2020 World Health Summit Regional Meeting scheduled to take place from April 27 t0 29, 2020, will be the first to be held in African.

The Advance team led by the President of the World Health Summit Prof. Detlev Ganten and accompanied by Germany's Ambassador to Uganda Dr. Albrecht Conze and senior officials from Makerere University paid a courtesy call on the First Lady at State House Nakasero in Kampala on Wednesday.  

The team from Makerere included the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe, Prof. Charles Ibingira Principal of Makerere College of Health Sciences and Prof. Francis Omaswa the Executive Director of African Center for Global Health and Social Transformation, among others.

The Education Ministry Permanent Secretary Alex Kakooza and other senior officers from the ministry were also in attendance.

Mrs. Museveni said Uganda is looking forward to hosting the World Health Summit and she hoped that what the team has seen about the country gives them confidence that this summit will be in good hands and will take place.

 "We are happy to have you here. I am really hoping that this summit will be as useful as we all expect it to be. I have no doubt that we will prepare sufficiently and that Uganda will benefit some more information and build partnerships that will last for the good of us all," she said.

The First Lady noted the need for a deliberate effort to strengthen partnerships during the summit so that Uganda can work with those countries that have drugs, better technology and that have gone further than us. "We need to have a plan of what we need to achieve from this summit and build the partnership that will truly see our countries working together to improve health for the human family on our planet. We are all looking forward to what the results of this summit will be and that it will add some value to what the World Health Summit has so far achieved in the time it has existed," she added.

Origin
Prof. Detlev Ganten explained that the World Health Summit was started in Berlin in 2009 to improve global health in the population. He said after realizing that only serving the G8 countries is not what will achieve global health, the World Health Summit decided to look for the best University that is not from a G8 country to host the regional meeting, and this resulted in choosing Makerere University.

He added that in October 2019, the World Health Summit International Presidency passed from Tehran University of Medical Sciences to Makerere University and Prof. Charles Ibingira became the first African International President of the World Health Summit.

Prof. Ganten added that the World Health Summit has been working towards one goal of improving health for everyone on the planet. He explained that what they mainly do is agenda-setting and showing how health is very important for the population.  

"Health is always a topic at the G8 and G20 Heads of State meetings and we also stimulate NGOs and students to participate in the scientific activities to help the people," he said.

Prof. Ibingira, Principal Makerere University College of Health Sciences and 2020 International President, World Health Summit said since this is the first World Health Summit Regional Meeting ever to be hosted in Africa, Uganda is proud and hopes to benefit from the knowledge and ideas from the various delegates on how best to invest better in health.

He reported that preparations for hosting this big meeting are going on and he highlighted the topics for discussion which include the health of the African youth, advancing technology for health, infectious diseases and global health security, stemming the tide of non-communicable diseases in low and middle- income countries, inter-sectoral action for health and universal health coverage.

He added that all the topics are in line with the African journey towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals and achieving universal health coverage

Prof. Ibingira also revealed that industries from Germany and Europe will showcase their products and technologies and this will give chance to Ugandans to establish partnerships with them and to start their own initiatives.

The symposium will also strengthen partnerships and enable technology transfer from Germany to Uganda.