Dear Colleagues, Partners, Distinguished Guests, and Friends of AFREhealth, On behalf of the Governing Council and the entire AFREhealth community, it is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 9th AFREhealth Annual Conference in Kampala, Uganda. This year’s conference is particularly significant as it coincides with the celebration of AFREhealth’s 10th Anniversary — a decade of advancing health professions education, research, and service delivery across Africa through collaboration, innovation, and partnership. This conference also marks an important milestone in our organization’s governance, as the current Governing Council concludes a successful two-year tenure and formally hands over leadership to a newly elected Council. On behalf of AFREhealth, I extend sincere appreciation to the outgoing Council members for their dedication, service, and stewardship, which have contributed significantly to the growth and strengthening of our organization. We also look forward to welcoming and supporting the incoming Council members as they assume responsibility for guiding AFREhealth into its next chapter.

Our annual conference remains one of the most important platforms for knowledge exchange, networking, mentorship, and collaboration. It provides an opportunity for researchers, educators, policymakers, practitioners, students, and development partners to share experiences, showcase innovations, and explore solutions to the pressing health challenges facing our continent.

As we reflect on our achievements and challenges over the past decade, we are equally inspired by the opportunities that lie ahead. The rapidly evolving health landscape calls for stronger partnerships, greater interprofessional collaboration, and sustained investment in research and capacity development. AFREhealth remains committed to fostering excellence, strengthening institutions, and supporting the next generation of health leaders who will drive transformative change across Africa.

I encourage all participants to actively engage in the scientific sessions, workshops, networking events, and discussions throughout the conference. The ideas exchanged and partnerships formed here have the potential to shape the future of health professions education and healthcare delivery across the continent.

I extend my sincere appreciation to the conference steering committee, the local organizing committee and subcommittees, presenters, sponsors, partners, volunteers, and all those whose dedication and hard work have made this conference possible.

I also thank each participant for your continued commitment to AFREhealth’s vision and mission.

I wish you a productive, enriching, and memorable conference experience, and I look forward to the insights and collaborations that will emerge from our time together in Kampala.

It is my great honour to welcome colleagues, partners, researchers, educators, health professionals, policymakers, students and other stakeholders to this 2026 edition of the AFREhealth Conference on behalf of the AFREhealth Conference Steering Committee. AFREhealth was founded on a powerful principle: Africa’s health challenges require African-led solutions, strengthened through collaboration, evidence, innovation and shared learning. This conference provides an important platform for bringing this principle to life. The health landscape across Africa is changing rapidly. We are witnessing an increasing burden of non-communicable diseases, persistent infectious diseases, emerging and re-emerging health threats, inequities in access to quality healthcare, health workforce shortages, and the growing impact of climate change and technological transformation.

At the same time, Africa possesses remarkable intellectual capacity, innovative ideas, and a generation of health professionals committed to transforming our health systems. Our task is therefore not simply to identify challenges, but to translate knowledge into action.

This conference brings together diverse disciplines, institutions, and countries to share research findings, exchange experiences, challenge conventional thinking, and identify practical approaches to strengthening health systems across the continent. Importantly, it creates opportunities for established scholars to mentor emerging researchers and for young professionals and students to contribute meaningfully to Africa’s health agenda. As we meet to deliberate, I encourage us to move beyond presentations and conversations towards partnerships, implementation, and measurable impact. Let us ask not only “What does the evidence tell us?” but also “How can we use this evidence to improve the health and wellbeing of African populations?”

I wish to express my sincere appreciation to the AFREhealth leadership, the Steering Committee, our institutional partners, sponsors, reviewers, speakers, abstract presenters, volunteers and other stakeholders whose contributions have made this conference possible. I also commend our students and early-career researchers whose enthusiasm, creativity, and commitment give us confidence in the future of health research and education in Africa.

As we gather, let us remember that collaboration is not merely a strategy for AFREhealth; it is our strength and our identity. By working across disciplines, institutions, and national boundaries, we can generate relevant knowledge, strengthen capacity where it is most needed, and accelerate solutions that improve health outcomes across the continent.

I look forward to the rich exchange of ideas, new collaborations and transformative commitments that will emerge from this conference with over 400 abstracts.

I warmly welcome you to the AFREhealth Symposium and wish you a stimulating, productive, and memorable experience.

It has been a great honour to chair the Local Organizing Committee for the 9th AFREhealth Annual Conference hosted by Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) on the theme “From Innovation to Impact: Strengthening Health Education, Research, and Service Delivery for a Resilient Africa.” I am very grateful to Prof. Pauline Byakika-Kibwika, Vice-Chancellor of MUST, for entrusting me with this responsibility. Her belief in and support of this conference has been critical in making it happen.

I am also grateful to Prof. Prisca Olabisi Adejumo, Conference Steering Committee Chair, for her excellent leadership in providing the overall vision and direction of this conference.

We are also grateful to the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Health for its effective and decisive control of the Ebola epidemic in Uganda, ensuring a safe environment for us to host this conference and welcome delegates from across the continent.

None of this would have been possible without the tremendous team we built here in Uganda — colleagues who worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to shape a program that befits AFREhealth’s mission. Special thanks to the Secretariat team for their dedication and attention to detail, which took this conference from concept to reality.

To every delegate joining us for these three days: welcome to the Pearl of Africa.

This gathering is a testimony to the collective commitment of researchers, educators, and health leaders across Africa to turn innovation into tangible impact for our health systems, and I look forward to the ideas, partnerships, and progress that will emerge from our time together. And when the sessions are over, I encourage you to take time to explore the beauty of Uganda. From the source of the Nile to our national parks and warm hospitality, there is a lot to discover.

Distinguished guests, colleagues, partners, and friends from across Africa and beyond,

It is my great honour and privilege, as Chair of the Scientific Committee, to welcome you to the 9th Annual AFREhealth Conference here in the beautiful lakeside setting of Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala.

On behalf of the entire Scientific Committee, and jointly with our host institution, Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST), and the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth), I extend the warmest Ugandan hospitality. Karibu! Feel at home among friends who share a common passion for advancing health education, research, and service delivery across our continent.

AFREhealth continues to stand as the largest and most diverse continental interdisciplinary health professional grouping, working with Ministries of Health, training institutions, and partners to improve the quality of healthcare in Africa through research, education, and capacity building. This year’s conference, under the timely theme “From Innovation to Impact: Strengthening Health Education, Research, and Service Delivery for a Resilient Africa”, builds on a decade of excellence as AFREhealth marks its 10th anniversary. We gather at a pivotal moment to turn ideas into measurable change for a stronger, healthier continent.

I begin by expressing profound appreciation to the members of the Scientific Committee. Your dedication, expertise, and countless hours of careful work have shaped a programme of the highest quality. To our rigorous reviewers: thank you for the thoughtful evaluation of abstracts that ensures only the most relevant and impactful science reaches this stage. Your commitment upholds the standards that make this conference a trusted platform.

Special mention must go to the AFREhealth Secretariat, whose unwavering support has been indispensable to the work of the Scientific Committee. I particularly thank Mrs. Georgina Yeboah, Executive Director of AFREhealth, for her invaluable technical guidance; Mr. Evans Akannue Atim, the main technical support person at AFREhealth, for his dedicated assistance to the committee; Ms. Clara Sam-Woode and Ms. Winifred Mensah, both of AFREhealth, for their further consistent support. From the host institution, I acknowledge Ms. Sheila Olivia Niinye, International Relations Officer at MUST, for her technical support with invitations for guests, and Ms. Angella Nakato, the MUST Public Relations Officer, for her excellent work on branding.

To our valued sponsors: your generous support makes this gathering possible and amplifies its reach. To the researchers whose abstracts form the backbone of our sessions, the panelists who will share hard-won insights, the moderators who will guide our discussions, and every guest who has travelled to be here: you are the heart of this meeting. Special thanks go to the Local Organizing Committee for their tireless groundwork, the Steering Committee for strategic guidance, the management of MUST for hosting with excellence, and the AFREhealth leadership and management — under the presidency of Prof. Nelson Sewankambo — for their vision and unwavering support.

We promise you a packed agenda rich in innovative, community-relevant, and impactful scientific research. Expect stimulating plenaries, oral and poster presentations, in-conference and side workshops, and vibrant discussions that span digital transformation and artificial intelligence in health, strengthening the health workforce, integrated approaches to communicable and non-communicable diseases, and building climate-resilient systems through One Health partnerships. Early findings will meet sharp questions; collaborations will begin; and practical solutions for African contexts will take centre stage.

May these three days inspire new partnerships, deepen existing ones, and equip us all to translate innovation into lasting impact for the communities we serve. Once again, welcome. Uganda is glad you are here. Let us make this 9th AFREhealth Conference truly memorable and transformative.