A flashback to days as a District Health Officer
The visit to Chibuto hospital today was like a trip back in time for me. The picture of the surgical theatre (right) so reminded me of the one I used to run when I was a district health officer in …
Neil Squires
It ain't half hot mum!
I am showing my age now by making reference to this old British sitcom in the title of this blog, but it does sum up the events of today quite well! It was 41 degrees centigrade when we arrived in …
Health promotion and disease prevention: Octavio's new job
It was a real pleasure to meet Octavio Dosantos in the Patrice Lumumba health centre during my recent visit as part of the annual evaluation of the health sectors performance in Mozambique. Octavio had recently been transferred to this health …
Drugs, toilets and statistics
It is day 2 of the field visit of the annual joint review and I am sitting sweating in a dingy hotel room with no functioning air-con, but with a most fantastic sea view. I've attached a shot of the …
Michel Kazatchkine and National Strategy Applications
One of the important side meetings of the International Health Partnership meeting in Geneva last week was between Michel Kazatchkine, the executive director of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria (GFATM) and Mozambique's Minister of Health, Paulo …
Margaret Chan: getting to know you
I got the strong impression last week that Margaret Chan, the dynamic leader of the World Health Organization is a closet karaoke singer! In order to highlight that partnership between agencies, developing countries, financing partners and between governments and civil society …
The audacity of hope and a trip to Geneva
I packed Barack Obama's autobiography ‘The audacity of hope' for a trip from Maputo to Geneva which I made this last week. What a great read! I am a bit of a nervous flyer - sweaty palms as soon as …
How can civil society help shape health and HIV/AIDS policy in Mozambique?
I had a really interesting meeting at the end of last week on how we might increase the participation and voice of civil society in both health and HIV/AIDS policy in Mozambique. The meeting took place in the DFID office, the air-conditioning …
DFID and Mozambique's Ministry of Health - making it happen
I am just coming from a meeting with the Permanent Secretary, and Directors in the Ministry of Health. They kindly let me take a picture at the start of the meeting, which was on the 7th floor of the Ministry of …
Looking ahead for 2009
It is quiet here in Maputo at present. Christmas is the start of the summer holiday in the southern hemisphere, and many of my colleagues in government and development agencies are still on holiday. But there is quite a lot …
Recent Comments