Commonwealth Peoples Forum - Uganda 2007 - Collaborative Workshop

Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association has a leading Role at the Commonwealth People's Forum in Uganda

The Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association played a leading role in advocating for health at the Commonwealth People's Forum (CPF) which was held in the wings of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Kampala, Uganda in November 07. It collaborated with the Commonwealth Dental Association, the Commonwealth Nurses Federation, the Commonwealth Medical Association and BasicNeeds Trust to organise a workshop on 19/20 November entitled "Prioritise Health – realise potential" which reflected the theme of CHOGM, "Realising people's potential".

The workshop looked at five areas of health – human resources; maternal and child health, lifestyle diseases; safe practices; and mental health and development. It was attended by around 100 delegates and was the subject of much intense debate. It made a number of recommendations on the areas covered including the following:

• That Governments, together with civil society and other agencies, need to make renewed efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) related to health and other international health targets.
• That Governments have a responsibility to be self sufficient in their health workforces and to educate sufficient health workers for their needs.
• That Governments need to make an extraordinary commitment to maternal and child health to meet MDG targets.
• That Governments should refocus their health systems on primary health care services, which give health information, promote healthy lifestyles, and provide health screening, early detection and early intervention services in order to reduce lifestyle diseases.
• That Governments have a responsibility to provide health workers with the resources, equipment and infrastructure so that they can be safe at work.

The Civil Society Statement from the CPF to CHOGM reflected most of the workshops' concerns and recommendations. In their Declaration on Transforming Societies to Achieve Potential, Economic and Human Development the Heads of Government reaffirmed their commitment to intensify efforts to meet the MDGs and urged the UN Secretary General to convene a meeting in 2008 of Governments with the private sector and other interested parties to accelerate action to attain the MDGs. I their Final Communiqué Heads of Government again reiterated their commitment to attaining the health related MDGs and identified needs in respect of human resources, strengthening of health systems, primary health care services, non-communicable diseases and affordable medicines.

In addition, the partners combined to hold a health session for the public in the People's Space. This was a lively and well attended event that started with a brief presentation on life style diseases and handouts on how to take "Your Medicines Safely". A DVD on Diabetes was shown and was followed by a debate, lead by Dr Nkwenti Achu the CPA Vice-President, on what causes diabetes, the treatments and what could be done to prevent getting diabetes.