CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE REPORT

Name:
University
Registered:
Cohort:
E-mail:

Respicius Shumbusho Damian

University of Dar es Salaam

Date:

4/10/2015

Cohort 4
rdamian@cartafrica.org

A: Conference Details
Conference Title:

5th Annual East African Health and Scientific Conference &

International Health Exhibition and Trade Fair

Conference dates:
Country Hosted:
City:
Nature of
Participation:

From: 3/25/2015
Uganda
Kampala
Oral presentation

To:

3/28/2015

Briefly introduce the aim/themes of the conference

The East African Health and Scientific conference & International Health Exhibition and Trade
Fair bring together public health stakeholders and Development Partners from within and Out
of the East African Community every year. The Health and Scientific Conference provides
opportunity for researchers, policy makers, healthcare practitioners, and representatives of
dedicated development partners to share experiences, lessons and solutions from research that
aim at solving shared health problems improving health status of the populations in East and
the rest of Africa. The theme of the 5th Annual East African Health and Scientific Conference,
which was held in Kampala between 24 and 28 March 2015 was "Investing in Health
through strengthening regional health systems, and institutions towards the
prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases". It
specifically aimed at facilitating dissemination of recent scientific findings, inform both
policy makers and programmers, and provide a platform for multi-disciplinary discussions
from different institutions and countries on Health matters.
The conference brought together more than 700 researchers, policy makers and health
professionals who discussed more than 440 presentations and more than 100 posters
based on original and innovative researchers in different four symposia. These were: (i)
Symposium 1: The 2nd EAC Health Ministers and Parliamentarians Forum and
Symposium on Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health
Accelerating and Sustaining Progress in Women and Childrens Health Post 2015 (ii)
Symposium 2: Accelerating Integrated Health and HIV&AIDS, Sexually Transmitted
Infections (STIs), Tuberculosis and other opportunistic infections responses (iii)
Symposium 3: Promoting Access to Safe, Efficacious and Quality Medicines, Medical
Devices, Health Products and Technologies in the EAC Region, and (iv) Symposium 4:
The 2 nd East African Epidemiological Symposium: Promoting Integrated One Health
Approaches on Human, Animal and Ecosystem Interventions.
The oral presentations were organized and grouped along four subthemes namely: Subtheme 1: Heath Systems Strengthening, Sub-theme 2: Integrated Approaches to Disease
Prevention, Control, Management and Health Promotion, Sub-theme 3: Diseases and
Conditions of Public Health Importance, and finally, Sub-theme 4: Social Determinants
of Health in which my presentation titled Rethinking Lay Participation: CommunityBased Financial Accountability and Rural Healthcare in Tanzania was delivered on
26 th March 2015 (see the attached Power Point slides Annex 1).

CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE REPORT

C

Relevance of the Conference/Workshop to the fellows professional development

My ongoing PhD research project is on Empowerment and Community-Based Financial
Accountability in rural Healthcare. It tries to examine why efforts to strengthen the role of
communities in monitoring, controlling, and oversight for making sure that the ongoing
commitment of governments and development partners in low income countries including East
Africa leads into improved health outcomes. The focus of the research is on community
(actors)s capability and the community-based accountability mechanisms in place.
Related to the theme of the conference this year, my projects reminds African countries, which
are in the process of mobilizing both domestic and incoming resources for saving lives of their
populations that without effective mechanisms for protecting a little that we have and ensuring
that they are used wisely and solely for saving lives of our people, increase in health financing
may not go with improvement in health outcomes as it is learnt from Tanzania Rural
communities. The project brings a unique approach to the struggle to promote healthcare
among communities of low income countries, especially rural communities. Therefore, I was
assured and also learnt from interest in the presentation during the conference that my
presentation was a third eye opener to the healthcare experts, researchers, and stakeholders
that before investing heavily in communities healthcare, we need to invest in empowering
those communities so that they can safeguard finances invested in saving lives of their people.

Fellows contribution through participation in the conference

Despite calling for a broad range of disciplines that had potential contribution to healthcare, it
was noticeable that most of the findings from papers that appeared in all the symposia had a
medical-therapeutic orientation. Thus, even in the social determinants of healthcare subtheme,
there were very few papers, which considered a complex web of social, economic, and political
forces that affect public health. A few of them, which existed were highly quantitative thus
ending up not answering questions related to social contexts and socio-political behavior that
influence/affect health promotion in African societies (see the attached book of abstracts
Annex 2). This made may presentation a unique one that captured interest and attention of the
audience. Few who were able to comment said it was a simple and a clear story, but touching
a very sensitive factor (proper use and control of money by people themselves), which if
neglected investment in healthcare as a shared commitment may not be meaningful.
At the closure ceremony, three top lessons and three top recommendations from each of the
four subthemes were quoted in the ministerial closure speech, which was delivered by the Hon.
Minister of Health from Uganda (will also appear in the main conference report). My
presentation provided one lesson out of the three lessons quoted from the social determinants
of health subtheme as well as one recommendation out of the three recommendations therein.
The specific lesson and recommendations as quoted were:
Lesson 2: We have learnt that community actors have the best tools to monitor and control
resources allocated for healthcare compared to arms length institutional mechanisms such as
the Supreme Audit Institutions and Parliamentary Public Accounts Committees. Such tools
include collective voice, collective power, action, altruism, and concern for community.
Recommendation 2: In the Social Determinants of Healthcare symposium, it was also
recommended that it is feasible and cost effective to invest in empowering community actors so
that they become capable of holding government officials and providers accountable for

CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP ATTENDANCE REPORT

decisions and actions related to how the money allocated for healthcare is spent to realize the
desired health outcomes (see the attached Power Point Slides Annex 1). With this, I was
confident that my travel to Kampala was not only for me to learn from others, but also more
than 700 healthcare experts and stakeholders to learn from me. I believe this is a good start
provided that it was my first presentation in an international conference.
E

Lessons Learnt through participating in the conference/workshop

Through participating in this conference, I was able to learn many lessons, but the most
important are as itemized below:
i.
The field of public health is still in a great demand of researches and perspectives from
a broad range of disciplines apart from those in the health profession mainstreams.
These include social sciences, humanities, and other qualitative approaches oriented
fields.
ii.
Multidisciplinary research findings sharing provides a potential for a bright future of
public health research in Africa. Through a multiple focus of the conference, a rich mix
of factors that affect healthcare improvement in Africa was brought to agenda,
discussed, and noted for policy consideration.
iii.
I also learnt that the young academics and researchers generation, which constituted
about 75% of the presenters during the conference is well trained and can innovatively
conduct research that brings about innovative solutions capable of addressing the
current public health problems of Africa. However, in the same line I learnt that policy
makers would like to work through experience rather than what the modern scientific
community tells them. With this, as emerging scientists have a challenge of marketing
our knowledge and research findings both tactically and aggressively.

What was most (a) motivating (b) challenging regarding the fellows participation
(a) Appreciation: In the beginning I did not believe I could stand in front of distinguished figures
including ministers and international scholars and make a point. When I approached them I
leant that they were positively ready to learn from me. So, I gained back my confidence and
talked as If I was talking to fellow PhD students whom I think have something to learn from me
(video clip available, may not be sent as an attachment).
(b) It was indeed difficult to deliver a qualitative message in 15 minutes. However, I synthesized
the data and simplified the message that I was able to deliver the presentation in 12 minutes.
In addition, the language used in many of the presentations was technical and thus resulted
into missing the key message of most of the presentations despite paying attention.

Kindly provide/Attach the following (Checklist)

1. Financial report (if the study was supported by CARTA)
2. Photos/videos showing the fellows participation
3. Attach presentation slides/poster or whichever is applicable
4. Certificate of attendance/contribution (if any)
5. Original receipts of all expenses (if participation was supported by CARTA)

Yes/No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes