It’s always exciting to see how the rapidly evolving use of electronic technologies is helping to improve health in Africa.  But innovation, by nature, initially provides benefits unevenly.  This workshop, co-hosted by Futures Group and Intel, is a welcome effort to improve eHealth standards across borders.  By sharing information, healthcare stakeholders aim to foster public-private partnerships, build support networks and improve healthcare delivery. 

Reposted from the Futures Group blog.

What do you get when you bring 10 of Africa’s most dynamic health reporters together for three days?  In addition to an incredible variety of experiences, areas of expertise, and a long list of award-winning stories, we also found consensus that Africa’s journalists need tools to help them use health data accurately and engagingly in their reporting.

Participants from left, back row: Erica Nybro, MEASURE DHS/JHUCCP; Declan Okpalaeke, Knight Health Journalism Fellow at ThisDay, Nigeria; Joy Wanja, Science and health reporter at the Daily Nation, Nairobi, Kenya; Brenda Wilson, Knight International Journalism Fellow, South Africa; Emmanuel Wongibe, Director of Cooperation and Public Relations and Deputy Editor-in-Chief for TV magazines, Cameroon Radio Television, Cameroon; Mohamadou Tidiane Kasse, Knight Health Journalism Fellow, Senegal; Christopher Conte, ICFJ, United States.  Front row: Mercedes Sayagues, Knight Health Journalism Fellow at Savana, Mozambique; Mary Ama Kudom-Agyemang, Public Agenda newspaper, Ghana; Elsabet Samuel Tadesse, Knight Health Journalism Fellow, Ethiopia; Grace Natabaalo, Programme Associate, Website and New Media, African Centre for Media Excellence, Kampala, Uganda.

MEASURE DHS (Demographic and Health Surveys), in collaboration with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) hosted a training-of-trainers in July in Entebbe, Uganda, to start developing a set of tools that African journalists can use to train others to use DHS data in reporting.  This set of tools, and the possibility for future training, will be disseminated in collaboration with the newly founded African Health Journalists Association.  

We have all seen bad reporting: verbatim use of a boring press release, inaccurate use of data, misinterpretation of survey findings, or the simple lack of quality data to support a story.  The skills needed to use Demographic and Health Survey data well are extensive:  basic math and statistical skills, knowledge of demographic and health terminology, and the ability to read and interpret complex tables.  And that’s just the beginning.  Once a journalist understands the data, how do they turn it into a compelling story with a human face?  How do they explain to their readers why these results matter?  How do they influence decisionmakers to take action to improve the health of their community? 

Add to this long list the sensitivity of HIV prevalence data.  As MEASURE DHS continues to include HIV testing in many surveys, accurate and thoughtful coverage of these results is essential. Unfortunately many journalists do not understand the concepts of survey error, confidence intervals, and significance or meaningfulness of trends.  How do you explain to a journalist in East Africa that while the survey results look like a decrease in HIV prevalence, due to sample error, our survey does not in fact detect a change in HIV prevalence in the population?   How do you teach someone who does not have a degree in health that an increase in HIV prevalence could be a good thing if it’s due to an increase in HIV-positive people living longer on anti-retroviral treatment?

On July 11, 2012, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.K. Government—along with UNFPA and other partners—convened the high-profile London Summit on Family Planning. The overall goal of the summit, held on World Population Day, was to raise $4 billion to ensure that contraceptive information, services, and supplies are available to an additional 120 million women in the world’s poorest countries by the year 2020.

Key themes that emerged during the London Summit on Family Planning.

The meeting’s attendees included high-level government officials, donor organizations, health and development NGOs, faith-based organizations, and private institutions, among others. It brought together the worlds of policy, finance, commodity, and service delivery to discuss ways to make family planning a global priority – by revitalizing commitments to family planning, increasing access to contraceptive supplies, and removing barriers that prevent women from accessing these vital services.

Reflecting the diversity of the attendees, speakers at the summit included representatives from governments, donor organizations, and private industry. A highlight of the summit was Melinda Gates’s speech during the afternoon plenary session. She began by announcing that the Gates Foundation will commit an additional $560 million dollars to family planning efforts between now and 2020 (twice what they are currently spending on family planning). Ms. Gates talked about the importance of world leaders committing to innovation on behalf of women. She encouraged leaders to think about family planning from the perspective of women, and that this would lead to real innovation.

As the seven keynote speakers from the London Summit on Family Planning disperse, there is a feeling of hope worldwide. Today, World Population Day, marked a great accomplishment for the women all over the world. An additional $4.6 billion was committed today for family planning, hoping to give 120 million more women and girls access to family planning information, services, and supplies. In the days leading up to the London Summit on Family Planning, Melinda Gates spoke about the goal for the summit to garner support for family planning from not only donor nations, but developing as well. With astonishing support from civil society, private sector, donor nations and developing nations, the goal of $2 billion from developing countries and $2.6 billion from donor nations was achieved - $3 million more than the intended goal.

 

New Financial Commitments by Donors and Private Sector at the London Summit on Family Planning

Keeping up with the live streaming video, the constant twitter feed (#FPSummit) and simultaneous tweetchat (#FPChat) was challenging. But the one thing that was constant through all the forms of media was the positivity. It was all over the posts to Facebook, Twitter feeds, and throughout the summit. The amazing positivity and enthusiasm that was expressed to improve the lives of women worldwide was moving. Improving the lives of those in developing nations will have a positive effect on all of our economies, health, and well-being.

The Prime Minister of Britain, David Cameron, spoke about the need for aid transparency, a sentiment echoed by many of the other speakers. In order to uplift and empower the developing nations, we must let them make the change. Donor nations must help enable environments to support the change and increase in family planning.