Dr. Francis Omaswa

 

 Dr. Francis Omaswa is a statesman in global health. Omaswa, the former director general of health services for Uganda’s Ministry of Health and the founder and executive director of ACHEST (African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation), is a MLI Senior Advisor. He also is one of the co-chairs for the Global Health Council’s annual conference next week in Washington, D.C.

 In an interview, Omaswa tells writer John Donnelly his thoughts about MLI’s upcoming Call to Action on country ownership, which will be released next week, and about an important theme that he hopes gains wide notice at next week’s conference.

Q: Next week, MLI will be releasing its Call to Action on country ownership. What have been some of the important lessons from MLI’s work in five countries over the last three or four years?

A: The most important thing I would think is we have five countries who have been getting together to share experiences and support each other. They now feel the experience they have gained over the years as something they own, and something they are ready to share with other countries. MLI has helped these countries work together, and I’ve been very pleased with the result of their cooperation.

Q: When you talk about sharing experiences, why is that so powerful for, say, African and Asian countries to come together?

A: When you are on your own, you’re not sure if you are going in the right direction. When you share experiences, you develop a mutual respect and it gives you confidence. It always helps to compare notes with your colleagues as to whether you are going in the right or the wrong direction. It also works because the countries have similar backgrounds, similar struggles. Sometimes, one country has a solution that another has not thought about, and they say, ‘Wow, you are doing that?  Maybe we can try that, too.’ The opportunity for peer learning is really very powerful.

Q: What are your hopes regarding the Call for Action and for MLI’s work in the future?

A: On the Call to Action, it’s really up to the countries. In the worst case scenario, and MLI begins to wind down, I hope that these countries on their own will continue to help each other. Second, I’m hoping MLI should be supported by another partner to continue with these countries and helping them work together and improve their projects. Third, there needs to be more dissemination of the lessons learned by these countries. We have a lot of good experiences and it needs to be documented, publicized, and shared.

Q: You are one of the co-chairs for the upcoming Global Health Council meeting. What are your hopes for it?

A: It looks like a very, very busy meeting with many divergent topics. I have only been to one of these meetings before, and it was a long time ago. For this type of meeting, the most powerful thing about them is getting to meet and hear other colleagues, often outside the formal meeting venues. So I am looking forward to it very much indeed. Also, the global health agenda, which is now mostly South-North, is getting more and more integrated. The South is getting stronger. There are quite many presenters from the South. As Lord Nigel Crisp stated in his book, Turning the World Upside Down, you are seeing more of these South-North exchanges from which we are learning from each other, rather than in the past when it appeared that the North had information for the South.

Q: Is that your most important message for the conference?

A: Yes, we need a broader relationship. We need to be talking about our struggle in the South to build institutions and professional capacity for learning and analysis and closing the implementation gap. There’s a lot of knowledge that is not being applied still. This is probably our biggest weakness.

 Q: What are you working on now that is exciting?

A: A number of things. We are the African Coordinating Centre for the Medical Education Partnership Initiative. We’ve been visiting medical schools in Africa, and we helped bring together the largest gathering of African medical educators ever in March, which was supported by PEPFAR, along with George Washington University and ACHEST. That is one. Another one is working in countries to find institutions outside the ministries of health that could potentially provide support as well as be agents to hold their governments to account.

Q: Do you mean as a kind of a watchdog?

A: No, they would hold it more accountable, but they also would be a support. In fact, it’s being a support first, and next holding them accountable. I see it as more of a partnership, instead of a combative, or a you-vs.-them relationship.

Q: What are you doing in this project now?

A: We are mapping the health resource partner institutions, or finding out which institutions are in the country. We want to know the groups doing work in health, particularly in the area of policy strategy. They can be universities, civil society groups, research centers, and also media. We see media as extremely important.

Q: What’s the purpose of the project?

A: It’s to make stronger partnerships. In the ideal situation, in a country where you have a strong ministry of health, you also want strong institutions outside to make sure that the health agenda remains strong in the country. So if the ministry is not working well, this outside group can say, ‘What’s going on? What can we do to support you?’