Pan-African Medical Conference, African Union, Addis

Last week, People to People was a host organization for the first-ever Pan-African Medical Doctors & Healthcare Conference, held in the African Union Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The conference Keynote Speaker was Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, Chairperson of the African Union Commission. Other remarkable dignitaries who attended included Mulatu Teshome Wirtu (President, Ethiopia) who addressed the conference after Dr. Zuma, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia). Former President of Ethiopia Girma Wolde-Giorgis joined the closing dinner for the conference. PAMDHC brought together leading professionals in their areas of expertise – including a People to People panel on Triangular Partnership, moderated by former US Ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shinn. Panelists included:

• Dr. Costantinos BT Costantinos, Professor of Public Policy, School of Graduate Studies, Addis Ababa University.
• Dr. Anteneh Habte, Chairman of People to People’s Board of Directors, and Medical Director, Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Martinsburg, WV).
• Dr. Egbe Osifo-Dawodu, Founding Partner at the Anadach Group,  global healthcare strategy firm.
• Dr. Dawd S. Siraj, Associate Professor of Medicine at the Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University.

The conference was put on by US Doctors for Africa, People to People, and Zambian International and Investment Centre (ZITIC).  I had to leave the conference during the first morning to interview US Ambassador to Ethiopia Patricia M. Haslach for People to People Radio – more about that in a later blog.

Internet access and wifi in the otherwise-excellent Capital Hotel and in the African Union building were not reliable – so this is my first opportunity to post to my blog since 19 May.

Here is what the African Union campus looks like from the air – on 22 May as we flew from Addis to Lalibela:

Images Copyright 2014 by Katy Dickinson