ESWATINI: MSF Scientific Days Southern Africa 2024
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Eswatini is hosting the upcoming MSF Southern Africa Scientific Days 2024, scheduled to take place in Mbabane on April 17th. MSF Scientific Days will bring speakers and attendees from different regions to discuss thought-provoking topics in a hybrid format, combining virtual and in-person participation.
“MSF Eswatini is excited to be hosting the MSF Southern Africa Scientific Day in 2024! A chance to show and to demonstrate how medical research has continuously influenced the introduction of new services in Southern Africa MSF projects and innovative approaches used when delivering these services to the communities most in need.” Dr Luis Neira, MSF Head of Mission in Eswatini.
In its twentieth year, MSF Scientific Days is a platform to connect audiences across countries, organisations, specialities, and expertise to exchange medical research and new approaches from our humanitarian operations. This year's event will focus on key themes, including Tuberculosis (TB), sexual health in precarious Settings, Diagnosing Acute Early HIV, Pre-exposure Prophylaxis, and engaging with people and patients as an operational, strategic approach.
“This year, the main goal is to start conversations around Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STIs), TB, and HIV. While doing that, we also want to consider prioritising the engagement of patients and populations as partners in our initiatives. Through research, we will provide evidence that, indeed, science plays a vital role in medical service provision,” Dr. Neira adds.
Attendees of MSF Scientific Days can get the opportunity to network with other humanitarian organisations, medical professionals, and policy stakeholders, which will help guide MSF's field operations, influence operational strategy, and ultimately improve the quality of care for patients.
“In our case, we are not only looking forward to getting a chance to share the research abstracts amongst ourselves as the MSF movement, but most importantly, for longevity and sustainability purposes, we are also looking forward to getting a chance to also influence the approach of service provision to the Ministry of Health as proven by research.” Dr. Neira Concludes
About the MSF project in Eswatini:
Sitsandziwe "We Are Loved" is the name of MSF's newly opened clinic in Eswatini, focusing on providing sexual health services to the general population with key focus on vulnerable populations. The project aims to improve access to quality medical care, including innovative prevention, diagnosis and treatment services. MSF also cooperates with the Ministry of Health to achieve sustainable policy change. As a core approach, MSF engages with communities to ensure that patients and populations are informed, participate in the design of, continuously evaluate, and participate in the governance of sustainable sexual health services.