News

Members of Parliament (MPs) who serve on parliamentary health committees across various parliaments in Africa, and other stakeholders engaged in health are convening in Munyonyo, Uganda from 13-14 December 2017 for the 2017 Network of African Parliamentary Committees of Health (NEAPACOH) meeting.

The focus of this year’s meet is built around reproductive health (RH) and family planning (FP), with the theme “Building the capacity of African policy makers for reproductive health and family planning: Challenges and Opportunities for Parliaments to enhance reproductive health and family planning”.

The meeting is jointly organised by the Partners in Population and Development ““ Africa Regional Office (PPD-ARO) in partnership with AFIDEP and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga is expected to officiate the opening of the meeting, and a key note address will be delivered by Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi, Member of Parliament and Minister of Housing and Urban Development in the Uganda Government.

AFIDEP is represented at this year’s meeting by Dr. Rose Oronje, the Director of Science Communication and Evidence Uptake, and Dr. Bernard Onyango, Knowledge Translation Scientist. Dr. Oronje will give a talk on Thursday, 14 December on the findings of a survey on NEAPACOH’s contribution to the implementation of RH/FP in the context of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development; and Dr. Bernard Onyango will on Wednesday afternoon speak on the socio-economic implications of of youth demographics in East Africa during a session focused on moving research evidence towards policy and programme practice.

To follow the proceedings of this year’s meeting, the Twitter hashtag is #EvidenceInParliaments