Makamu wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania Mhe. Samia Suluhu Hassan akiwasha mwenge kama ishara ya ufunguzi wa Kongamano la 7 la Afya na Sayansi la Afrika Mashariki lililofanyika katika Kituo cha Kimataifa cha Mikutano cha Mwalimu Julius Nyerere jijini Dar es Salaam.
Makamu wa Rais wa Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania Mhe. Samia Suluhu Hassan akihutubia wakati wa ufunguzi wa Kongamano la 7 la Afya na Sayansi la Afrika Mashariki lililofanyika katika Kituo cha Kimataifa cha Mikutano cha Mwalimu Julius Nyerere jijini Dar es Salaam.
Sehemu ya Wataalamu waliohudhuria ufunguzi wa Kongamano la 7 la Afya na Sayansi la Afrika Mashariki lililofanyika katika Kituo cha Kimataifa cha Mikutano cha Mwalimu Julius Nyerere jijini Dar es Salaam. (Picha na Ofisi ya Makamu wa Rais).
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SPEECH BY H.E. SAMIA SULUHU HASSAN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 7TH EAST AFRICAN HEALTH AND SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE, HELD AT JULIUS NYERERE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION CENTER (JNICC)
DAR ES SALAAM, THE 27TH MARCH 2019
· Hon. Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Republic of Rwanda;
· Hon. Chairperson of the EAC Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health and Minister of Health, Republic of Rwanda;
· Honourable Ministers of Health from the EAC Partner States;
· Honorable Ministers;
· Amb. Liberat Mfumukeko, Secretary-General of the East African Community;
· Honourable Members of Parliament from the East African Legislative Assembly and National Assemblies of the EAC Partner States;
· Permanent Secretaries of EAC Partner States;
· Members of the Diplomatic Community;
· Professor Gibson Kibiki, Executive Secretary of the East African Health Research Commission;
· Representatives of Development Partners;
· Researchers, Scientists and Practitioners;
· Conference Participants;
· Members of the Press;
· Distinguished Guests;
· Ladies and Gentlemen;
A very goodmorning to you all.
At the outset, allow me to express my profound gratitude and appreciation to the organizers for inviting me to such an auspicious occasion of the 7thEast African Health and Scientific Conference. We are all aware that no country/region can achieve meaningful and sustained economic growth without advancement in Digital technologies especially in the critical health sector.
In this regard I wish to commend the organizers for holding this biennial conferences successfully and consistently over the past years. The interest of the region’s health researchers and scientists in discussing the gains and setbacks in Health Sector and the role of Science and Technologies in developing the sector is clearly reflected in the extensive preparatory work that has gone into the conference, and at the range of expertise gathered here today.
I am witnessing firsthand the enthusiasm of this community to drive efforts to promote rapid technological and digital transformation to support the implementation of health sector interventions and programmes. This is surely a step in the right direction towards the attainment of SDG 3 and universal health coverage and am in full support of this.
We are grateful that you chose Tanzania as the venue. Indeed we are extremely privileged to host you. Let me take this opportunity to welcome you all, I trust that the organizers have done everything within their means to make you feel at home KARIBUNI SANA TANZANIA.
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
Investing in Health Sector and relevant digital technologies is key for our development that we need to pursue more aggressively as a region. I am pleased with the region’s continued efforts towards operationalizing the EAC Treaty, particularly Article 118 that calls for collaboration in Health Sector as well as other relevant provisions of the EAC Common Market Protocol.
I am delighted to see that this conference is not only graced by Scientists coming from EAC but also brings together participants and delegates from all over Africa and beyond the Continent. I have no doubt that you will find the selected topics interesting and enriching. I believe this conference will provide you with yet another opportunity to exchange information on current development and deployment of potential approaches to scaling up innovative technologies that will accelerate the attainment of the SDGs
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
Science and technology is an important and vital tool in addressing fundamental gaps in the health sector. I wish to commend the organizers for the timely and relevant selection of the theme, “Technology for health systems transformation and attainment of the UN-Sustainable Development Goals”. This theme comes at an opportune moment as the world is in its fourth industrial revolution where science and technology is taking the lead in all aspects.
You will all agree with me that sustainable development is elusive if we do not invest in fit-for-purpose technologies in order to help our countries to generate answers and solutions to many public health problems and challenges.
I wish to underscore that the need to invest in Digital Health Technology cannot be understated if we are to fully implement the Sustainable Development Goals and address all aspects of poverty. We can no longer ignore the direct correlation of poverty and social vulnerability in aggravating poor health. Therefore, in order to address these vulnerabilities we need to invest inDigital Health Technology as a way of strengthening regional healthcare services.
We in Tanzania have been able to identify that and we have already embarked in digitizing our healthcare system through our Ministry of Health and the several agencies under them such as the MSD ( whereby the digitized technology helps us in tracking the consignement from purchase point to delivery point), the NHIF (management of the client membership, claim and contribution) and the TFDA (online reporting of import and exports under TFDA and online reporting of the adverse effects of the use of medicine and cosmetics) . In addition to what is happening at our Agencies level we have installed Hospital Management System in all Government Hospitals. This system gives real time data and you can track the movement of the patient and the medicine stock.
We have recorded positive impact of our healthcare sector since we embarked on digitizing our sytems. A number of gains have be made which among other things include;
i. Improved quality of healthcare services – For instance; having EMR in place, improved availability of patient history (medical records), enhance continuity of care, Today No Record Loss, Appointments are made by the Doctors right away, improved medication etc.
ii. Improved efficiency and time saving
iii. Availability of real- time data for better decision making
iv. Improved resource (health commodities, HRH) tracking and allocation based on the demand
v. Improved accountability (internally and externally)
vi. Improved data security, privacy, confidentiality, transparency and internal controls.
One of the gains that is dear to me is the Reduced post-natal mortality rate through telemedicine e.g. Digital Village located in Ngorongoro – Ololosokwan.
Our challenges still remain in having adequate manpower to support these ICT initiatives and funds to train new manpower and come up with new initiatives. I believe the discussions you will have today will share on your best practises and how you can cooperate with each other in scaling up digitized transformation in the region’s healthcare sector
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates
Am made aware that today, in addition to the East African Health and Scientific Conference, the East African Health Research Commission Commission has established new platforms meant to share research findings in the region, to build research capacity and to create a better environment for research on health matters. Allow me to mention a few of them:
1. The Commission has developed a new concept note of the conference, approved by the 15th Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health, which makes the conference a biennial event instead of being an annual one as it was before. This gives time to implement the recommendations of the conference and to prepare for the next one.
2. The Commission has established an official comprehensive compendium of health information in East Africa, which is a One-Stop Center for Health Information. It is operational through a web portal (www.eahealth.org), which will be launched during this ceremony.
3. The Commission operationalized two (2) scientific Journals that are contributing to share with the global scientific community the scientific work part of the EAC region;
4. The Commission established the Young East African Health Research Scientists’ (YEARS’) Forum which is an initiative aiming to empower East African Community (EAC) young researchers to be able to shape the future of research for health in the region; this initiative was approved by the 15th EAC Council of Ministers; YEARS’ Forum will also launched during this ceremony.
5. The Commission initiated a number of other regional programs and projects that are running.
I therefore, take this opportunity to congratulate all members of the Commission from Partner States and the East African Health Research Commission Secretariat for these tremendous achievements and encourage them to keep up the speed and the commitment.
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
The approval of the Digital Regional East African Community Health (Digital REACH) 10 years strategic plan by the Sectoral Council of Ministers of Health held in Kigali on 26thOctober 2018 is an important step towards achieving transformation in the sector.
I expect that Digital REACH will support the development and implementation of regional health programme, within existing EAC Regional policies and legal frameworks as provided by the Treaty Establishing the East African Community and as desired by each of the EAC Partner States.
I am informed that this initiative will build infrastructure and other digital health assets that can be used directly, by each country, for their own national programme implementations. It has been developed based on collaboration and inputs from representatives of the EAC Partners and is supported by respective Organs of the EAC.
However, effective implementation of this regional initiative depends not only on good coordination from the East African Health Research Commission but also on strong commitments of EAC partners States, Development Partners and every Health Sector Stakeholder in Partner States. I take this opportunity therefore to call upon our Development Partnersto continue their support to the East African Health Research Commission, and Partner States to implement and coordinate this initiative.
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
As we discuss the above mentioned revolutionary and innovative initiative we must strive to put up mechanisms that support and accelerate its implementation in the Health Sector. I am informed that all EAC Partner States are now implementing digital health initiatives that need to be supported. We should not forget however, that for effective integration of the EAC partner states they need to be regionally interoperable.
Digital health is proved as one of the enablers of Sustainable Development Goals in developed countries and a lot of pilot projects all over the world are confirming the same to be the case in low- and middle-income country settings. Digital solutions are used to strengthen all the core building blocks of health systems which are: service delivery; health workforce; health information systems; access to essential medicines;financing; and leadership/governance.
I therefore encourage Partner States to support the new development in EAC partner states and call upon them to work together through Digital Health Technology and I reiterate the commitment of the United Republic of Tanzania to take advantage of Digital Health technology to improve implementation of health sector interventions, with the aim of accelerating attainment of the Universal Health Coverage and SDGs.
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
We realize however that, digital healthcare initiatives to achieve the SDGs have inherent challenges that go beyond the implementation of technology. These challenges include among others the need for a trained workforce skilled in using digital health solutions and the need for proper governance and funding, among others.
To overcome these barriers, we need to take an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral approach, bringing together all the main actors in the digital health ecosystem such as international organizations, health service institutions, academia, research centers, and public and private industry.
We need to align our digital health approaches and solutions with the specific needs of the country’s health system and the region. We need to define and implement digital health strategic plans which consider governance mechanisms in digital health. Our national strategies and policies need to be developed and aligned together to ensure inter-sectoral cooperation.
Therefore, our Academia and research centers and institutions are expected to continuously develop and produce primary evidence that helps decision makers identify the best, most cost-effective solutions from the wide range of options available in digital health.
The public and private industry, which is revolutionizing the digital health sector, should consider national and regional health realities and priorities, and offer sustainable needs-oriented solutions in specific sociocultural and social health realities in line with resources available in the context.
This underlines the urgency of supporting the Digital REACH Initiative which is designed to complement, improve, and strengthen EAC Partner States specific work in digital health. Let us not lose this opportunity to boost the attainment of SDGs for our Community.
As for our experts gathered here today, the Community expects from you concrete, simple and cost effective actions, with high impact that EAC Partner States can undertake at national level or collectively at regional level.
Chairperson, Hon. Ministers, Distinguished Delegates;
Before I conclude my Remarks, let me once again welcome you all to Tanzania and thank Hon Ministers of Health from our Region and Your Country delegations for having decided to stay and attend this Conference after you concluded the Meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council on Health, which just ended on 26th of March 2019 in Dar es salaam. This is a testimony of how you value East African Cooperation in Health, Research and Science.
My appreciation would not be replete if do not thank all Members of the Diplomatic Community, Development Partners Members of The East African Legislative Assembly, Presenters of various scientific papers invited to the Conference and all those who have put in time and effort to ensure the success of this Conference.
I wish to conclude my remarks by thanking you all for attending, for those who are coming outside Tanzania and will get few days to rest, hope you will enjoy exploring the beauty of our country. I particularly recommend our sandy beaches in Zanzibar; our picturesque Kilimanjaro Mountain not forgetting our renowned Serengeti National Park.
I wish you fruitful deliberations.
IT IS NOW MY SINGULAR HONOR AND PLEASURE TO DECLARE THE 7THEAST AFRICAN HEALTH AND SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE, OFFICIALLY OPENED.
I THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND ATTENTION.
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