1st Amref Health Africa International Conference
Theme: From Evidence to Action – Lasting Health Change in Africa
November 24 – 26, 2014, Nairobi,
Organised in Collaboration with the World Health Organization

Conference Communiqué
Preamble
We, the organisers, keynote speakers, scientists and researchers, leaders from governments, multilateral agencies, the private sector and civil society, representatives of development partners, delegates, participants and the media, came together in this inaugural Amref Health Africa International Health conference to:
:: Share cutting edge research on health and health systems in Africa
:: Identify and discuss priorities in addressing Africa’s health in the post-2015 agenda
:: Bring together stakeholders to reflect on home-grown solutions to health system challenges in Africa.

In the past three days, we have had rich sharing and discussion around the deep knowledge shared by keynote speakers, the findings of researchers, and the experience and skills of the private sector in innovation to find solutions to improved service delivery in Africa.

We Note That:
:: Africa has made progress in improving the health of her peoples in the MDG era, but that this progress has been inadequate to achieve the MDG targets for health.
:: Serious challenges in health persist in relation to the health of women and children, communicable diseases and infectious diseases that have long been eliminated or mitigated in other continents.
:: Africa additionally faces an emerging health burden from non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
:: More than one-third of African children are stunted due to chronic malnutrition, which seriously reduces their future economic productivity. This is a root cause of Africa’s under-development as malnutrition reduces national GDP by up to 3%.
:: In some countries, up to 40% of healthcare expenditure is out of pocket
:: African governments and the private sector must work together to invest in systems of production of human resources for health, taking maximum advantage of current technologies like e- and m-learning to lower the cost of training.
:: Accountability, efficiency, value for money, and transparent tracking of health expenditure must become standard principles in utilisation of health care resources by both state and non-state health stakeholders.
:: African governments must put in place enabling policies, invest in quality health services, and show greater political will to address the root causes of ill health and galvanise other stakeholders to contribute towards sustainable universal health care coverage.
:: African governments should enact polices that adopt task shifting to address the shortage of human resources for health.
:: African governments must urgently create the policy framework, legislation and investment to rapidly improve the health research output in the continent.
:: Implementers, researchers and policy makers must create the platforms that ensure that research is translated into evidence-based policy-making and action to improve health in Africa.
:: African governments should create policies to facilitate networking of African researchers to generate evidence from research for practice and policy change.
:: Non-governmental organisations must advocate with the key stakeholders to focus attention continuously on translation of evidence to investment decisions for sustainable health systems in Africa.
– Conference Bulletin Issue No. 1
– Conference Bulletin Issue No. 2
– Conference Bulletin Issue No. 3