ICT AND GLOBAL HEALTH : EXPERIENCE OF UNACOH

1
ICT AND GLOBAL HEALTH EXPERIENCE OF UNACOH
ECSAPHA

• Presentation by
• Dr. D. K. Sekimpi
• UNACOH/ECSAPHA
• WFPHA Congress, Istanbul, Turkey
• April 2009

2
Outline of presentation

• Rationale for PHAs to use ICT
• UNACOH EXPERIENCE
• ECSAPHA EXPERIENCE
• AFRICAN REGIONAL PHAs EXPERIENCE
• INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
• CHALLENGES LEARNT
• POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
• LESSONS
• WAY FORWARD
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

3
Rationale for PHAs to use ICT

• Contribution of National PHAs
• Entry point for a non-governmental voice to
  address health policy and public health issues
• Impartial advocate for health outside of politics
  and economics
• Forum for a wide range of professional skills and
  interests to focus on specific public health
  issues
• Generates/applies scientific knowledge/evidence
• Developing professional capacity for public
  health workers
• Increases the technical expertise of
  government/non-government health sector
• Strengthens consultation and partnership across
  different sectors and disciplines
• Encourages local professionals to remain in the
  health field and, in some instances, to remain in
  their home country.

4
UNACOH EXPERIENCE

• CONVENTIONAL IEC MATERIALS e.g Tobacco Control,
  HIV/AIDs, Health as a Human Right
• CONVENTIONAL AUDIO-VISUAL EQUIPMENT- LCD
  projections, Camera-Still and Video, Films
• TELEPHONE VOICE AND SMS
• INTERNET- Minutes, urgent messages, announcing
  meetings, forward key email messages
• WEB SITE
• MASS MEDIA (RADIO, TV, PRINT) - especially
  campaigns

5
(No Transcript)
6
(No Transcript)
7
ECSAPHA

• MAINLY INTERNET, BUT ALSO PHONE SOMETIMES
• COMMUNICATION AMONG ECSAPHA MEMBER PHAs
• COMMUNICATION WITH POTENTIAL ECSAPHA MEMBERS
• COMMUNICATION WITH REGIONAL ORGANISATIONS E.G.
  ECSA HEALTH COMMUNITY, WHO AFRO, RASPAF
• COMMUNICATION WITH INTERNATIONAL PARTNERS -
  NOTABLY CPHA AND WFPHA
• IDEA OF ECSAPHA INTERNET PLATFORM, WITH POSSIBLE
  SUPPORT OF CPHA/PHA-BC

8

• Regional PHA Networks
• Réseau dassociations de santé publique dAfrique
  francophone
• East, Central and Southern Africa Public Health
  Association

9
ENVISAGED AFRICAN PUBLIC HEALTH FORUM

• ARISING OUT OF CPHA SUPPORT FOR ECSAPHA AND
  RASPAF REVIVAL MEETINGS APRIL 2007 FOLLOWED BY
  PRESENTATIONS AT WFPHA ANNUAL MEETING 2007
• CONTINUED INTERNET COMMUNICATION BETWEEN ECSAPHA
  AND RASPAF SINCE THEN
• CONSOLIDATION AT WHO AFRO OUAGADOUGOU PHC MEETING
  APRIL 2008
• AFRICAN PHAs DECLARATION FROM OUAGADOUGOU
  CIRCULATED BY INTERNET

10
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION

• UNACOH IS CONSTANTLY IN INTERNET COMMUNICATION
  WITH CPHA, TO A LESSER EXTENT WITH IDRC, WFPHA,
  etc
• KM4PH, especially with support of ALENA (WHO) AND
  TOM (U. of Iowa), HAS ENABLED REAL TIME
  INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION, MORE SO AS WE PREPARED
  FOR THIS SESSION
• KM4PH HAS A GREAT POTENTIAL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT
  OF NATIONAL AND REGIONAL PHAs THROUGH ALLOWING
  REAL TIME DISCUSSIONS AMONG THE PHAs AND OTHER
  STAKEHOLDERS

11
CHALLENGES

• HUMAN resistance to change, work overload, so
  no time to learn new technologies, e.g. who is
  Web Master?
• TECHNOLOGIES- Low band width internet may not
  allow some of the possible applications
• COST who pays for the connectivity
• TIME DIFFERENCES may not allow some real time use
  of ICT, such as the KM4PH platform discussions

12
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

• HUMAN Continuing Education and continuous
  engagement
• TECHNOLOGIES- use of available low cost
  technologies or upgrading of existing
  technologies eg to broaden band, or use fibre
  optic instead of copper wire
• COST could be cut by sharing facilities such as
  the KM4PH platform
• TIME DIFFERENCES problems may be overcome by
  early planning of real time discussions

13
Way forward

• Plan an ICT situational survey among national
  PHAs, especially those on CPHA SOPHA Program
• WFPHA and other partners should assist African
  PHAs acquire ICT Technologies
• African PHAs should utilise ICT more in their
  intra-country and inter-country (inter-PHAs)
  communications
• WFPHA, CPHA already utilise internet to
  correspond with African PHAs, BUT could add the
  KM4PH real time discussions on a regular basis

14
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• WFPHA AND TPHA FOR ORGANISING CONGRESS
• CPHA FOR FUNDING MY PARTICIPATION
• KM4PH, ALLENA, TOM, MANJULA FOR FACILITATING
  PREPARATORY DISCUSSIONS
• ECSAPHA, RASPAF, UNACOH MEMBERS WHOSE
  COMMUNICATION HAS GIVEN ME THE EXPERIENCE TO
  WRITE ABOUT
• MANY OTHER STAKEHOLDERS BEHIND THE SCENE

15
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ATTENTION!