Future Africa Forum in collaboration with Uniting to Combat NTDs, TIBA, AL for Health and Youth Combating NTDs hosted a side event on the role of young people in the New Public Health Order for Africa during the 2nd Annual Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA2022) held in Kigali, Rwanda from 12 – 15 December 2022.
The event brought together young health advocates and senior public health experts to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities that exist for young people who are committed to advancing Public Health on the continent and to discuss their role in delivering the New Public Health Order that is being championed by Africa CDC.
The side-event kicked off with a special message from the AU Youth Envoy, Ms. Chido Mpemba, who reminded young people that no action is insignificant and made a commitment to ensure that the outcomes of the side event would be followed up through her office, and a further commitment to support the advancement of meaningful youth engagement and participation on the continent through the African Union.
This was followed by a special message from Ms. Alisha Ault, Policy Analyst at Uniting to Combat NTDs who encouraged young people to hold their leaders accountable by calling upon them to commit to and endorse declarations such as the Kigali Declaration on NTDs which aims to mobilise resources for the WHO NTD 2021-30 Roadmap. She also urged other organisations to foster respectful and action-oriented partnerships with young people given the impact that Uniting to Combat NTDs has realised from working with youth through Youth Combating NTDs.
Through an interactive panel discussion featuring Ms. Laurene Amoit from AL for Health, Dr. Chrys Promesse Kaniki from Africa CDC, Dr. Neneh Sallah from Youth Combating NTDs and Ms. Lorraine Pfavayi from TIBA; key issues such as youth inclusion in decision making, mentorship, movement building and some of the continental strategies being put in place for the African youth were explored.
Ibraheem Sanusi from GIZ, wrapped up the event as a fire-side chat guest speaker and he spoke on the need for young people to clearly articulate their value proposition and encouraged them to move from a fragmented approach when addressing public health issues in Africa and instead work towards integration and collaboration among themselves.
Affirming the discussions held at this side-event, a major highlight of the CPHIA2022 was the commitment made by the Dr Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the Acting Director of Africa CDC, to establish a youth advisory team at Africa CDC to help with the formulation of youth engagement strategies including advising the Director-General on how young people can contribute in the implementation of the New Public Health Order for Africa.
Speakers:
Dr. Neneh Sallah – Advisory Board Member, Youth Combating NTDs
Ms. Laurene Amoit – AL for Health Sector Lead, Africa Leadership Academy
Dr. Chrys Promesse Kaniki – Senior Technical Officer for Strategic Programmes Executive Office, Africa CDC
Lorraine Pfavayi – Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Edinburgh
Ibraheem Sanusi – Head of Project Strengthening Crisis and Pandemic Response in Africa, GIZ Office to the African Union
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Future Africa Forum. Future Africa Forum is a pan-African policy think-tank and policy advisory consultancy headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
