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ISSN : 1744-2532 (Print)
ISBN : 2516-5305 (Online)
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From the Editor/Publisher
Jideofor Adibe, PhD
In the May/June 2006 issue of the journal, we focused on the tensions in Africas Borderlands (Sudan, Mauritania, Chad and Mali) and posed a number of fundamental questions: What is the nature of the relations between peoples of Arab and African ancestries in Africa Are the constant tensions in the Borderlands fundamentally a manifestation of conflicts between pan-Africanism and Pan-Arabism Can peoples of African and Arab ancestries ever co-habit peacefully in one country
In this issue we deviate from our usual practice of having a lead theme, and a number of unrelated articles and reviews, and exclusively explore the challenges and opportunities of health care delivery in Africa. Dr Chinua Akukwe, a leading authority on public health, HIV/AIDS, and development issues in Africa, is the guest editor for this special issue. He very ably solicited, edited and arranged the articles in this special edition. We are grateful for the enormous amount of work he put into this, and for the variety of perspectives he was able to bring together. We are convinced that the contributions have raised significant questions, and in many instances provided stimulating answers for policymakers and health practitioners in Africa to build on.
The contributors address various aspects of the challenges and opportunities of healthcare delivery in Africa. Chinua Akukwe, in an overview article, articulates reasons for a renewed focus on Africas healthcare delivery systems, arguing that this special edition is the beginning of a long term, consistent review of Africas healthcare delivery challenges and opportunities. Kenneth Simuyi, a practising medical doctor in Kenya and Aman Ali, a practising doctor in Cote dIvoire, assess the prospects of healthcare delivery in Africa by 2020, arguing that the prospects in the continent by 2020 are not promising. For them, African leaders and peoples will require a significant change in direction in order to achieve an efficient and effective health care system by the year 2020.
Bience Gawanas, Commissioner of Social Affairs at the Africa Union Commission whose portfolio includes health, discusses African Unions responses to the health challenges in the continent and argues that the Africa Union is committed to quality healthcare delivery strategies for the continent that promotes universal access to every African no matter the geographical location and station in life.
Former Nigerian First Lady, Mrs Maryam Babangida, focuses on the experiences of the Better Life Program for the African Rural Woman (BLPARW) which she founded and chairs, noting that, the Better Life Program led to the creation of the Ministry of Womens Affairs and Social Welfare in Nigeria, the current Poverty Alleviation Program (PAP) and various other programs in the different states of Nigeria, which focus on alleviating the plight of, and providing the tools to create better life for women and children in rural areas. She calls for public-private partnership approach to support rural-based health care and development initiatives in Africa
Alphonsus O. Obayuwana, Director of Graduate Medical Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Maryview Medical Center, Portsmouth, and Ann L. Carter-Obayuwana, a licensed psychologist and counsellor examine the essential roles and responsibilities of Diaspora scientists and health care professionals in meeting Africas health care needs. They argue that the sons and daughters of Africa - especially those who live in relative comfort in Europe and in the Americas must now face the inescapable fact that we (as descendants of Africa) cannot, any longer, individually or collectively, simply sit on the sidelines and wring our hands like helpless on-lookers while the health problems that plague the African continent and the African communities in the Diaspora continue to abound.
Gilbert C Kombe, Senior HIV/AIDS Technical Advisor at Abt Associates Incorporated, Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and John Fieno, Adjunct Professor, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA, discuss new thinking on how to address the worsening challenges of sourcing human resources for health care in Sub Saharan Africa. Using doctors to illustrate how SSA can meet the HRH deficit, they argue that it needs to be communicated to policy makers and decision makers that investments in medicines and commodities will go to waste if the situation of HRH is not addressed.
Tshepo P. Maaka, Executive Director, Medical Tourism Services of South Africa (MTSA) reflects on the role of medical tourism in Africas health care system, pointing out that medical tourism is extremely valuable for any country willing to invest in the industry. She further argues that the African continent stands to benefit a lot from medical tourism in that they will be providing cheaper and quality healthcare services to the more affluent and industrialized economies whose healthcare systems are being crippled by the ever increasing costs of care.
Col (Dr) A.E. Ajemba, consultant physician and cardiologist coordinator at Nigerian army reference hospital, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria examines the role of national army medical corps in helping African nations meet their health care delivery challenges. Using Nigeria as a model, he shows how the Nigerian Army Medical Corps (NAMC) was able to record enviable successes in different countries. He observes that military health systems in Africa, as shown by the example of Nigeria, have some of the best complements of medical expertise in Africa, are better able than their civil counterparts to retain their experts at home, and have tremendous experience in public health disaster managements, specialized clinical care and public health national campaigns against specific diseases and health conditions.
Osarobo Adeghe of the Africa Center for Epidemiology and Disease Economics Research Abuja, Nigeria, discusses critical issues in the monitoring and evaluation of healthcare delivery in Africa, noting that health experts believe that monitoring and evaluation is the weakest component of health programs in sub-Saharan Africa.
Peace Obiajulu, President General, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, evaluates the role of the civil society in organized efforts to improve healthcare delivery in Africa, arguing that the key challenge now is for civil society organizations to work closely with government and private health system policy makers and program managers to ensure that target populations receive timely, quality health services.
In his contribution, Raymond Downing, author of As They See It: The Development of the African AIDS Discourse (2005), focuses on discerning the silences in the discussion of AIDS in Africa. He argues that in the discussion of AIDS in Africa, there is a deafening silence about the conceptual choice for science, there is another silence within this choice: a silence about what it means to accept the chronic disease model in modern health care. He contends that: "Scientific medicine is now introducing this same chronic disease model to Africa for treatment of AIDS by life-long ARV drugs. Their silence about the limited success of this model in the rest of the world is deafening. How could they 'forget'to mention this"
Osita Okagbue of the Drama Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London examines possible strategies for devising a culturally appropriate theatre-for-development in Africa, which could be deployed in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the continent. John. F Williams, Frank J. Cilluffo; Leroy R. Charles and Kristen Krapf Campbell from George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC focus on the role of US Universities in promoting health and human security in Africa. They argue that "faculty members from US universities could mentor African colleagues by providing instruction in research implementation, design, and management in areas of health and human security."
Hillary Thomas-Lake, a PhD student at Johns Hopkins University, offers a US perspective on the role of the private sector and its impact on African Health Service Delivery. For the author,One could say that the inclusion of the private sector in health care and health service delivery is a way of putting the good back into the phrase good governance when it comes to project management and implementation in the international development context.
Chinua Akukwe concludes with a review of the issues, challenges and opportunities in Community Oriented Primary Care, arguing that felt needs rather than perceived needs of target populations should be the guide of health planning and policy making.
Somalia: Reconstituting A Failed State
The lead theme in the September/October 2006 edition of the journal will explore the challenges and successes of reconstituting the collapsed state of Somalia. As usual, we will assemble leading experts in the field to explore various aspects of the challenges, opportunities and trajectories in the effort to reconstitute the failed state.
Be part of the debate
This is the 13th consecutive issue of African Renaissance since we made our debut in June 2004. The journal has quickly emerged as a leading multidisciplinary forum for the analysis of Africas development aspirations, fears and challenges. Be part of the discussion. To contribute, please contact:
editor@adonis-abbey.com or call at (+44 2077938893).
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The Independent Publishers Guild of the United Kingdom
We are happy to announce that our company, Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd, was on June 1, 2006 admitted as a Member of the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) of the United Kingdom. Besides an opportunity to network, we hope our membership will facilitate representation at the Frankfurt, London and Beijing Book Fairs.
African Journal of Business and Economic Research
AJBER, a blind-reviewed academic journal, which made its debut in January this year and is published three times a year, is calling for papers for the next issue. It is publishing a double issue in one. We are giving a free copy of the book Internationalisation and Enterprise Development in Ghana (edited by the journals editor, John Kuada) to subscribers to the journal between May and July 2006. To contribute, please contact the editor, John Kuada, or write to him at:
Dr John Kuada (Associate Professor)
African Journal of Economic and Business Research
Department of Business Studies
Fibigerstraede 2, 9220 Aalborg Oest
Denmark
Email: kuada@business.aau.dk
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Dr Jideofor Adibe is the Editor of African Renaissance, and Publisher,
Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd, London.
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