On Thursday, August 27th 2015, a larger group of CouNTDown stakeholders met in the City Escape hotel, Accra to further strategize how best they could be engaged in the CouNTDown research uptake in Ghana. The meeting was in two sessions, the first session looked at the objectives of the meeting, overview of CouNTDown, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Program and Ghana’s plans on NTDs so far.
All the core team members on couNTDown facilitated various topics at the meeting. The members of the core team are :
- Dr. Nana-Kwadwo Biritwum – NTD Program Manager
- Dr. Margaret Gyapong- Dodowa Health Research Centre- Director
- Dr. Osei- Atweneboana CSIR Water Research
- Dr. Benjamin Marfo- NTD Program,Ghana
Dr. Margaret Gyapong led the 2nd session, which basically was the Group Work. All the groups were given the same set of questions to explore and answer. At the end of the group work there was a plenary session where one (1) person was selected to do a presentation on behalf of the group. Stakeholders present at the meeting were representatives from: NTD, DHRC, Sightsavers, NMIMR, GES/ SHEP, AMMREN, WHO, FHI360, FDA, OCRC, LF Support Centre, CSIR, NMCP, Coalition of NGOs in Health, VRA, West Africa Morbidity Project, PCD, WACIPAC and World Vision.
As part of the group work summary, each group gave a recommendation as to how best couNTDown should engage stakeholders.
Key Areas used for Group Discussion:
- What is the nature of the collaborations between NTD and different stakeholders?
- How can this collaboration be improved?
- How are decisions on funding priorities for different stakeholders arrived at?
- How can the NTD program be better resourced to achieve its aims?
- Which stakeholders need to be brought on board to support the NTD program and what will their role be?
- What research evidence is needed to support the implementation of the NTD program?