The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) has organized a two-day seminar to engage with key stakeholders on its Primary Health Care Project Bijimi.
Project Bijimi aims to strengthen the healthcare systems of the 55 African Union (AU) member states by leveraging the expertise of various health experts from the continent and diaspora.
The project will be piloted in five countries; Central African Republic, Chad, Burundi, South Sudan, and Lesotho for the benefit of 45,000 rural residents and subsequently extended to other African countries.
African countries are still struggling to gain access to basic preventive, curative, and palliative care services despite the passage of the ALMA ATA Declaration, which called for swift action to develop primary healthcare systems.
Speaking at the seminar, Senior Programme Officer at NEPAD, Janet Byaruhanga, said Project Bijimi will focus on bridging the aforementioned gaps to improve access to healthcare.
“The focus will be on education in the communities on the diseases and other health issues that affect them.” We will also focus on training and upscaling healthcare workers. Some of the community workers may not be remunerated, so we will encourage their countries to invest in community healthcare workers.”
Project Bijimi’s guiding principles and philosophy can be summed up as the 8As and 3Cs of primary health care: appropriateness, adequacy, accountability, availability, accessibility, acceptability, affordability, accessibility, and completeness, continuity (ability to scale) and comprehensiveness (ownership by the community).
Key features of the approach that Project Bijimi will deploy include intersectoral coordination, community participation, south-south cooperation, and the harnessing of appropriate technologies.
By the end of the project, AUDA-NEPAD hopes to increase access to essential medications and health products, enhance epidemiology markers, and assess, identify, and support the operation of suitable physical and/or digital facilities that can be repurposed to improve access to primary health commodities for people in rural areas.