This paper presents perspectives and experience in dealing with health and civil society issues by a new African NGO, the African Council for Sustainable Health Development (ACOSHED). ACOSHED is beginning to take form in individual African countries, working from country focal points. It aims to stimulate public debate and dialogue on health issues, and to bring consumer and poor people’s perspectives to the attention of policy makers. The paper summarizes ACOSHED’s Nigeria work, including the process of getting started with identification of key stakeholders and their possible roles in what was initially termed a Nigerian Strategic Alliance and became ACOSHED-Nigeria. It discuses the work on opening a dialogue with the public authorities and the organization of workshops for parliamentarians on health reform and – with a wide range of participants in a public forum – on the meaning and implications, for Nigeria, of the country’s rankings in WHO’s World Health Report 2000, on ‘Health Systems: Improving Performance’. The paper concludes with a discussion of ACOSHED’s accountability, locally and internationally, and of a global community for health, from an African perspective. The paper insists that a global civil society for health encompass African peoples and organizations, and their perspectives, as part of the commitment of public health professionals to the disadvantaged and under-served.
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Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.