ECSA Health Community

East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community
Established	1974
Address	ECSA Health Community Secretariat, 157 Olorien, Njiro Road P.O Box 1009, Arusha, Tanzania
Website	http://ecsahc.org/

The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) is a specialized Regional intergovernmental organization working with the Ministries of Health to foster regional cooperation in health. ECSA-HC was established in 1974 and currently has 9 member countries (Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Kingdom of Eswatini, United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). The ECSA-HC is headquartered in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. The vision of the ECSA Health Community is to be the leader in the East, Central and Southern Africa, contributing towards the attainment of the highest standard of physical, mental and social wellbeing of the people in the region. The current Director-General of ECSA-HC is Professor Yoswa Dambisya, who came to office in 2014.

Origins

The Commonwealth Regional Health Community traces its history to as far back as 1965 when a meeting of health ministers from the Commonwealth countries held in Edinburg acknowledged the need to help developing countries set up their own training institutions and develop their own health programmes for Member countries of the Commonwealth from East, Central and Southern Africa. During subsequent meetings held in Uganda and Mauritius, deliberations on ways to provide a framework to operationalize the idea gained momentum and the first meeting of Ministers of Health from east, Central and Southern African countries was held in Lusaka, Zambia in 1972 under the theme of Regional Cooperation. At the meeting in Lusaka, the Health Ministers resolved to meet annually under a framework that would promote health cooperation based on solid work programmes addressing health problems in the region.

By 1974 the Commonwealth Regional Health Community Secretariat of East, Central and Southern Africa was established as a machinery for fostering regional cooperation and coordination in health for member countries, with Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe as the member states of the ECSA Health Community.

The Republic of Tanzania offered to host the Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania and the Commonwealth Secretariat (CommSec) in London continued providing financial support to start off the Regional Secretariat with the understanding that the responsibility will gradually be taken up by member countries. by 1980, authority and ownership was transferred by the Commonwealth Secretariat (CommSec) to the member countries, who then gave the community a new name: The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community also known as the ECSA-HC.

With the Member states ownership and support, the ECSA Health Community Secretariat built a permanent structure in Arusha, Njiro Road, which was officially inaugurated by His Excellency Dr Ali Mohamed, the then Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania on the 14th March 2007.

Structure

The ECSA health community is governed through five main organs namely:-

ECSA Conference of Health Ministers

The ECSA conference of Health Ministers is the highest governing body and meets annually to review policy matters, national health strategies and to define regional health priorities;

The Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee is composed of Permanent/Principal Secretaries of the Ministries of Health of Member States and functions as the Board of Management of the Secretariat.

The Directors’ Joint Consultative Committee DJCC

The DJCC is the highest technical committee composed of Permanent Secretaries, Directors of Health Services, Deans of Medical Schools and other health institutions and heads of Health research institutions;

The ECSA Programme Experts’ Committees

The ECSA expert committee is constituted by Member states’ programme managers, external advisors, professional associates and consultants from the region. The committee draws expertise from country programme implementation.

The ECSA Secretariat

The ECSA Secretariat is headed by the Director-General and located in Arusha, in the United Republic of Tanzania and is responsible for implementation of the ECSA Health Community’s programmes.

Operations

Since its establishment, the ECSA-HC has supported its member countries in fostering Regional Corporation in health and in strengthening capacity to address the health needs. The ECSA-HC implementation focus is guided by a 5 year Strategic Plan, agreed and endorsed by the health ministers of the member countries. ECSA-HC oversight is through the leadership of the Director General, supported by the Director of Finance; Director of Operations and Institutional Development and the Director of Programmes. Under the Director of Programmes are the Managers of Cluster Programmes and a Projects’ Coordinator. Operations and support extends to other non-member countries (Botswana, Burundi, Eritrea, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia and South Sudan).

The ECSA-HC is also responsible for supporting the ECSA College of Health Sciences (ECSA-CHS), whose aim is to promote excellence in specialized services including training, service provision and research within the ECSA health region. currently the umbrella college has 7 constituent colleges namely: The East Central and Southern Africa College of Nurses (ECSACON) ; The College of Surgeons of East Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA); The College of Ophthalmology of Eastern, Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) ; The College of Pathologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (COPECSA) ; The College of Anesthesiologists of East, Central and Southern Africa (CANECSA) and The ECSA College of Physicians (ECSACOP)

https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/ecsacop-strategic-plan[NM2]

Overall focus

There are four (4) main Cluster Programmes at the ECSA-HC namely Health Systems and Capacity Development; Family Health and Infections Diseases; Non-Communicable Diseases, Food Security and Nutrition and Knowledge Management, Monitoring and Evaluation. The Cluster Programmes support the Member countries in different activities that promote and support the highest standard of health in the region through advocacy, capacity building, brokerage, coordination, inter-sectoral collaboration and harmonization of health policies and programmes. As of June 2017, the ECSA-HC has defined its strategic focus to support countries in the following; Human Capacity Development

Health Systems strengthening
Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal, Child and adolescent Health
Global Public Health Security
Communicable and Non-communicable diseases including all forms of Malnutrition
Policy Advocacy on topical health issues
Research, Knowledge Management and Monitoring and Evaluation.

The ECSA-HC is also responsible for the State of Health in the ECSA Region report, the ECSA Best Practices Forum, an event hosted annually and the ECSA Health Ministers Conference.

Contacts:

ECSA Health Community Secretariat,

157 Olorien, Njiro Road

P.O Box 1009, Arusha, Tanzania

Phone: +255-27-254 9362/5/6

Email: regsec@ecsa.or.tz or info@ecsa.or.tz

[NM1]Was it heads of states or Health ministers?

[NM2]Help me with the one I have missed out