Sinergia project Global Health Africa Stakeholder Meeting in Nairobi
© 2022 EPFL
Under the supervision of Jérôme Chenal, the CEAT PhD Candidate Vitor Pessoa Colombo with the assistance of KEMRI partners is conducting a study about WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) and Urban Health. From 14 to 16 November 2022, stakeholders from various sectors of society got together to discover the research outcomes dissemination and discuss them.
More and more, local actors who are involved in scientific research involving human populations are saying that they regret not knowing what their collaboration has led to. This is especially true when these populations do not have easy access to scientific publications.
The project Sinergia of SNSF, "African contributions to global health: Circulation of knowledge and innovations" decided to proceed otherwise. It should be noted that the project is the result of a multidisciplinary team of doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers from Swiss TPH, the University of Basel and EPFL represented by CEAT, as well as 20 other project partners around the world.
The goal of these stakeholder meetings was to involve the government and local communities to discuss how to improve access to water, sanitation and healthcare in informal settlements of Nairobi. Over 1,100 households surveys were conducted in 2 low-income informal settlements of Nairobi, Mathare and Mukuru kwa Njenga to achieve the results presented.
The presentations focused on two topics: (1) spatial predictors of diarrhoea and perceived safety of sanitation facilities; (2) healthcare access and seeking behaviour. The meetings were structured into 2 sessions, each consisting of a 20-minutes presentation and a 40-minutes discussion. The discussions were "policy workshops", to raise recommendations in terms of urban planning and public health based on the evidence presented. This dissemination and discussion process were materialized in a series of very informative meetings. These meetings were certainly helpful to sparkle initiatives strengthening inter-sectoral collaboration when elaborating annual development plans and policy making.
Vitor Pessoa Colombo concludes the evaluation of the exchanges with these words: “Ultimately, we all want the same: equitable cities that ensure dignified living conditions for all. And it takes a collective, transdisciplinary effort to achieve such a goal.”
The meetings were a success thanks to the institutions like the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), the Nairobi City County, the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University of Basel, and people like Jérôme Chenal, Jürg Utzinger, Julia Tischler, Hellen Meme, Fred Orina, Michael Otieno, Vitor Pessoa Colombo, Akuto Akpedze Konou,Doris Osei Afriyie, Danelle Van Zyl-Hermann. The final stakeholder meeting is scheduled for late 2023 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire.
