7th March, 2008
The African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF) has been nominated as joint lead agency for a proposed network of African health institutions under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, along with the African Centre for Higher Management Studies (CESAG).
This decision was outlined yesterday at the First Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala, Uganda, designed to address health worker shortages and weak health systems around the world. Over 1,000 participants included ministers of health, health workers, civil society members and academics.
AMREF and CESAG were mandated to come up with a business plan, which will be discussed by the various stakeholders in July 2008 at a meeting to be convened by WHO. 
"This conference has recognised that improving health delivery is not just about enough numbers of health workers, but importantly also about ensuring quality of management and leadership within the health system," said AMREF’s Director General Dr Michael Smalley. "We are humbled and pleased to be selected by our peers to give leadership to this process."
Participants at the forum agreed that it was necessary to build a network to coordinate key management and training activities for effective scaling up of primary health care in Africa. While there has been a significant increase in investment in health care and training in the last few years, lack of effective management has been a bottleneck to ensuring effective health delivery.
Formation of a network of health development and training institutions would synergise the energies of the organisations and therefore provide training on a larger scale, including increasing access through technologies like e-Learning; build the capacities of these institutions to meet specific needs of the health systems; and make them more effective in advocacating for policy change.
"There is a lot of duplication of resources and efforts across the continent and even within individual countries. The network will coordinate all these activities so that members can pool their resources and take advantage of economies of scale to get greater value for their investment," said Dr Peter Ngatia, AMREF's Director of Capacity Building.
The conference has been convened by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA). In a video message relayed to delegates at the opening ceremony held at the Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort, UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon noted that there has been a renewed momentum in the international community towards provision of health globally, as well as an increase in know-how throughout the world on how to achieve that health. "What we need now is to work together in our commitment to saving lives," said the Secretary General, echoing the theme of the conference, 'Action Now'.
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AMREF urged for communities to be involved in decisions that affect their health care at the forum. Click on the link to read more.