Passing on experience in Africa

In July, a workshop passing on valuable lessons about the collection of diabetes data, was held in Yaounde, capital of the West African country Cameroon.  A similar workshop in April has already resulted in a project in Uganda.

Since 2003 WDF has supported the “Cameroun Burden of Diabetes” project (CAMBoD). Part of the project goal has been to determine the prevalence of diabetes and diabetes risk factors by performing a prevalence study in four urban areas all over Cameroon, involving more than 8000 households.
The study has, as intended, laid the foundation of a National Diabetes Program.

In July 2005 the project team found that it was time to pass on the lessons learned. Therefore a regional dissemination workshop for French speaking African countries was held in Yaounde, Cameroon.

WHO-inspired prevention approach

The workshop had as objective to share the experience of Cameroon in the use of the WHO STEPWise approach in collecting data on the risk factors of Non-communicable diseases and setting up an intervention package to address them.

The WHO Stepwise framework, described in three steps

1. Estimate population need and advocate for action
2. Formulate and adopt policy
3. Identify policy implementation steps

The framework aims to enable the poorest countries to take steps to prevent chronic diseases. In the long run WHO suggest that the resources needed for this stepwise approach, will outweigh the costs.

In Cameroon, 43 participants from 16 French speaking African countries attended the workshop to learn from the CAMBoD experience. One part of the participants came from the Ministry of Health and one part from national WHO offices. “We hoped that every country could send their NCD-officer, but unfortunately not every government has appointed a person to concentrate on NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases)” says program coordinator Ulrik Uldall Nielsen who participated from World Diabetes Foundation Secretariat in Denmark.

Impressive and overwhelming

The general impression was that the participants were very impressed by the work of the CAMBoD team in Cameroon, but at the same time, it became clear that their home countries lack the resources or the people, local champions like Professor Mbanya, who have the perseverance and network to carry through a project of this size.

Prof. Jean-Claude Mbanya, project responsible for the CAMBoD project.

Two countries, Benin and Mauritania had sent their only endocrinologists to the workshop. Ulrik Uldall Nielsen sensed that for those countries the message, provided by project partner professor Jean-Claude Mbanya, to perform a Stepwise investigation on the diabetes situation in the African countries, was overwhelming. “One the other hand”, Ulrik Uldall Nielsen noted; “several countries have already done step 1 and 2 of the WHO Stepwise approach, but the third step is the one demanding the most resources.”

A vital tool if resources are present

The basic facts compiled by the prevalence study are important in the process of convincing the politicians to direct attention and resources to the diabetes and NCD areas. But Ulrik Ulldal Nielsen concludes that; “one of the important lessons to learn is that not every country needs to take the stepwise approach. If resources are limited, all activities, who will benefit the people with diabetes, are welcome”.