Updates from Tanzania

The Tanzania FELTP (TFELTP) steering committee held its third meeting on 2nd April 2009 at the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Dar es Salaam. The meeting was attended by members of the Steering Committee namely: Ministry of Health and Social Welfare – Mainland, Regional Medical officer-Morogoro, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), NIMR, United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/PMI, World Health Organization (WHO), Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) Atlanta, CDC Country Office, African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), and the Prime Ministers’ Office – Department of Emergency and Disaster Management. Mr. Mukanga David represented AFENET Secretariat while Dr. Nsubuga Peter represented CDC- Atlanta. The Program Director made a presentation on the progress and achievements of the TFELTP. Mr John Grove on behalf of the CDC Country Director made a presentation on the CDC support to TFELTP and he congratulated the TFELTP team for the great work.

Updates from Rwanda

The Rwanda FELTP steering committee held a meeting on Monday, 6th April 2009.

Dr Simon Antara, the Resident Advisor for the Rwanda FELTP, supervised trainees of the first cohort short course from Wednesday, 8th – 10th April 2009. The trainees were undertaking field projects whose results will presented before the second short course commences.

Updates from Ghana

AFENET and the Ghana Field Epidemiology Training Program conducted a two day M&E IDSR pilot training course in Accra - Ghana on the 23rd and 24th of March 2009, at the request of WHO and CDC. The course was facilitated by Dr Mutonga David from the Kenya FELTP, Professor Edwin Afari and Dr Samuel Sackey from School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana. The participants comprised of 8 Ghana FELTP cohort two trainees and 3 fellows of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Updates from secretariat

A mini program review of all projects under the AFENET-CDC cooperative agreement was carried out on the 30th -31st march, 2009 to assess progress to date. The review workshop was conducted at the AFENET secretariat. All secretariat staff (both technical and administrative) participated in the review exercise. Other participants included: Prof. Fred Wurapa -Chair, AFENET Board of Directors; Prof. David Sserwada- PI, AFENET-CDC; Dr. Peter Nsubuga CDC-Atlanta; and Mr. Nqobile Ndlovu who was a Fellow under Exprerience at AFENET (Exp@AFENET). The purpose of the review was to assess progress of approved activities, identify challenges, and lay strategies to overcome identified challenges. Mr Mukanga-the Executive Director for AFENET gave the opening remarks and explained the importance of this review exercise. Each program officer made a presentation of their project and also made presentations on each of their assigned country programs. Mr. Mukanga concluded the presentations by highlighting some strategic issues and challenges that AFENET faced. Dr Nsubuga and Prof. F. Wurapa made significant contributions to the discussions that followed each presentation.

AFENET is in the process of developing a 3-5 year strategic plan to guide its strategic direction. AFENET with funding from HS20-20 engaged Mr. Godfrey Bwanika -a consultant to spearhead this process. On 1st April 2009, Prof. Fred Wurapa - Chair, AFENET Board of Directors, Dr. G. Pariyo Director of the Uganda program, Dr Okey Nwanyanwu- South Africa CDC Director, and AFENET staff participated in a meeting that was facilitated by Mr Bwanika. The purpose of this meeting was to revise AFENET’s mission, vision and strategic objectives. The consultant is in the process of gathering more information from other program directors to come up with a complete strategic plan document.

Dr. Nicholas Ayebazibwe from AFENET secretariat attended a grants’ writing workshop from 30 March to 3rd April 2009 at Protea Hotel Kampala-Uganda. This workshop was organized by The International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI). Other participants included IANPHI’s national public health institutes (NPHI’s) in Africa such as the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), National Institute for Communicable Diseases-South Africa, Nigeria Institute of medical research, National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR)-Tanzania, Noguchi Memorial Institute for medical research-Ghana, Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Ethiopia Health and Nutrition Research Institute (EHNRI). During the 5 day workshop, Dr. Ayebazibwe drafted a concept which will be used to solicit for funds for immunization and surveillance, focusing on the resurgent Wild Polio in Sub-Saharan Africa.