AHILA - Association of Health Information and Libraries in Africa
The Association generally known as AHILA aims to:
- Improve the provision of up-to-date and relevant information to health and medical workers in Africa.
- Encourage the professional development of librarianship.
- Promote the development of resource-sharing and exchange of experiences and information among African health information professionals.
- Promote the development, standardisation, and exchange of national databases of medical and health literature produced in the African countries in the form of an African Index Medicus
- Partnerships in Health Information has been an associate member since 1996 and has attended all of the AHILA biennial Congresses since that date.
Activity
2012 October: AHILA Congress, 13th, Praia, Cape Verde.
This successful Congress brought together representatives from over 25 countries from sub-Saharan Africa. Helene Gorring (UK) and Philippe Colomb (Pompidou Centre, France) facilitated a workshop on Public Access to Health Information. .
2012 June: Visit by Nasra Gathoni to UK.
This visit was jointly sponsored by INASP and Phi. It enabled Mrs. Gathoni to discuss AHILA's strategic plan and plans for the Congress in Cape Verde; and Mrs. Gathoni gave a paper at INASP's 20th Anniversary Seminar in Oxford.
2011 May: Visit of President of the Association for Health Information and Libraries to UK
Phi hosted a visit to the UK by Nasra Gathoni, President of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) to:
- Undertake a range of continuing professional development visits and meetings focused on building and taking forward AHILA’s strategy and continuing collaboration between Ken-AHILA and Ken-HIP
- Co-facilitate a web conference at the HIFA2015 conference Addressing the information needs of healthcare providers in low-income countries, held at the British Medical Association; and co-present a paper with Shane Godbolt (Director of Phi).
On her return Nasra wrote to say, “I would like to sincerely thank you once again for your continuous support for AHILA and especially for facilitating my trip to UK. It was a very fruitful week with very valuable meetings and discussions.”
Information
HIGHLIGHTS OF PAST ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
2010 October: 12th AHILA Congress, Burkina Faso - The theme of the Congress was Health Information in Africa - meeting our goals with sub-themes: redefining the role of the information professional; use of ICTs; collection and dissemination of research - open archives; patient and public access to health information; research and information required for chronic and neglected diseases; evidence based health care in Africa. Report by Emma Stanley. Read more
2009: Visit to UK - Nancy Kamau (President of AHILA) visited the UK (9th-22nd May). The visit was funded through a grant from INASP. The visit included discussions on the development of the AHILA strategy with Phi and attendance at a meeting with the Ken-AHILA partner in the UK. Read more - an extract from report submitted to INASP. Read more