Next week, on the 5th and 6th of November the Irish Forum for Global Health (IFGH) are holding their 10th International Conference in Trinity College Dublin, Dublin. The theme of the conference this year is Partnerships for Health. This theme is so appropriate in the world of global health and development where working in isolation from other organisations, communities or individuals often is detrimental to achieving goals and sustainable change. ESTHER Ireland has been offered the opportunity to present some of the work its partners have conducted in a parallel session called the Partnership Panorama.
This Partnership Panorama session aims to bring together those with an interest and those with experience in institutional health partnerships in an engaging, interactive and practical session. The session will have a four person panel, each with experience in institutional partnerships and insight into what makes a partnership worthwhile, and effective. The participants will be invited to put forward questions to the panel at the beginning of the session which will be covered over the course of the session. This promises to be an interesting session with an opportunity for practical learning about institutional partnerships.
This session will be recorded for a podcast as well as live tweeting throughout the session. So even if you are not at the conference you will not miss out. More details on accessing the podcast to follow. The speakers at the partnership panorama are in the table below as well as some bios on some of the speakers.
| Name | Perspective |
| Speakers | |
| Tony Ryan | Practical Demonstration |
| David Weakliam | Introduction to ESTHER |
| Méabh Ni Bhuinneann | Mayo General Hospital – Londiani District Hospital Partnership |
| Vicki Doyle | CDI- Lessons learned from Partnership Evaluations |
| Trish Scanlan | Muhimbili National Hospital, Tanzania – Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin |
| Respondent Panel | |
| Diarmuid McClean, Irish Embassy, Mozambique | Hospital manger and Southern partner at a national level |
| Lorcan Birthistle, CEO, Our Lady’s Childrens Hospital Crumlin | Hospital manger, new partnerships |
| Finola Finnan, Trocaire | Partnerships with NGOs |
| Anne Dee, Dept. of Public Health, HSE | Public health partnerships and value of the start up grant |
| Diarmuid O’Donovan, EQUALs Initiative, HSE, NUI Galway | Partnerships for equipment and training |
| Mark Cumming, Comhlamh | Volunteering and partnerships |
| Mary O’Dowd, Institute of Public Health Nursing | Developing a partners network and the value of start up grant |
| Eric O’Flynn, RCSI | Training Partnerships |
Speaker Bios
Dr Vicki Doyle, Director, Capacity Development International
Vicki is a UK-based health development professional, with more than 20 years experience of working in research, education, management and consultancy. She has designed and delivered health projects and programmes across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America working with UN agencies, global health partnerships, research institutions, consultancy companies and NGOs. Her core areas of technical expertise include health systems strengthening, quality improvement in health care, strategic planning, capacity development and evaluation of health programmes. Her research and consultancy work has resulted in a range of publications including global guidance and national strategy documents, policy briefs, training manuals, book chapters and journal articles.
Vicki has a keen interest in the effectiveness of Institutional health partnerships and has evaluated health partnership programmes on behalf of THET and the European ESTHER Alliance. She has a passion for ensuring that all forms of technical assistance, whether research, training, consultancy or volunteering are delivered effectively and within an ethical framework. She is director of studies for a post-graduate certificate course in international health consultancy that she runs annually at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She is the co-founding director of Capacity Development International, which is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of technical assistance in health.
Prof. Tony Ryan (MD, DCH, Obst, FRCPI, FAAP (Ped Crit Care)): Associate Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at University College Cork and Consultant Neonatologist at Cork University Maternity Hospital.
In 2002 Prof. Ryan, along with Dr Sami Ahmed set up Neonatal Resuscitation Programme (NRP) in Khartoum, Sudan, for Pediatricians/Neonatologists. Provider courses were given and followed up with NRP instructor courses to create a “cascade of teaching” by training local instructors: Subsequently Obstetricians, Midwives, Neonatal nurses, Paramedics, Respiratory specialists, and a Hospital Administrator were trained in NRP.
Between 2005-12, Prof. Ryan and Dr. Ahmed, led for a successful international partnership between Omdurman Maternity Hospital, Sudan, the largest maternity hospital in Africa (> 35,000 deliveries in 2013) and Cork University Maternity Hospital. Significant improvements in maternal mortality and perinatal mortality were associated with this partnership.
Helping Babies Breathe (HBB) was developed by the American Association of Paediatrics on the premise that assessment at birth and simple newborn care are things that every baby deserves. Prof Ryan traveled to Sudan 2013 to assist in training 80 paediatricians and senior health midwives from across Northern Sudan who in turn are training hundreds of village midwives on neonatal resuscitation.
Prof. Ryan’s other research interests and collaborations include preventing brain injury in the newborn infant, protein composition of breast milk, Probiotics in the newborn, inter-professional education, reflective inquiry & integrated learning, newborn resuscitation, education & devices.
Dr Trish Scanlan, Paediatric Oncologist
Dr Trish Scanlan is a paediatric oncologist who has been working in Dar es Salaam since August 2007. In close collaboration with her many Tanzanian colleagues in the Tanzanian MoH, Muhimbili National Hospital and the Ocean Road Cancer Institute, has developed paediatric oncology services in the city. This service includes free care for all children, a long stay hostel and most recently a paediatric haematology/oncology masters sub-specialty teaching programme for local paediatricians.
