Our first speaker is Rosemary Mburu (WACI Health Executive Director). She spoke of people power in disrupting global pharmaceutical markets, and the importance of ensuring both quality and affordability.

Starting off the second day with Roundtable 4: (How) Can humanitarians disrupt NCD drug and diagnostics markets? Drugs, Medical Marketplaces, and Patient Groups, chaired by Dr Janelle Winters and Dr Chimwemwe Phiri.

Garang Piol Buk Buk (practitioner with cross-border experience) spoke about the co-existence of more chronic crises with depleting resources for humanitarians. Humanitarians prioritise, and neglect underlying risk factors that affect the burden of disease, meaning NCDs are not prioritised.

Kicking off Roundtable 2: The Pragmatics of Chronicity: Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Challenges of Managing NCDs in Displacement Contexts (chaired by Dr. Peter Gutwa).

Key questions: How do NCDs manifest uniquely in displacement settings? How do interrupted systems affect chronic care?

Dr. Pesh Muwanguzi ( @hcrinstitute.bsky.social ) : mental health and NCD care suffered because units and 'star' healthcare staff were redeployed for Covid treatment in Uganda. In the future, Pesh called for NCDs to be integrated into emergency preparedness within its own planning pillar.

Dr. Evans Mecha (language department, Kisii University) reminded us that ‘Medical contact is systematically an episodic affair’ yet a holistic approach to chronic disease care requires long-term planning horizons and the involvement of people beyond medical practitioners

Dr. Endashaw Aderie reflects on his experience with @msf.ca and the challenges of sustainability in a hospital supported by MSF in Eastern Africa. What could MSF have done differently? Did it create dependency on high-tech tools, not sustainable by local health systems?

Roundtable 1: What Future for ‘Chronic’ Emergencies? Challenges and Possibilities of NCD Management in Humanitarian Contexts is chaired by Jemaiyo Chabeda (Medical anthropology Analyst, MSF Eastern Africa) and Bertrand Taithe.

Professor Darren Walter: The LEAP summer school in Kisii University started from the aspiration to combat the Euro-centric nature of the LEAP MSc programme on humanitarian practice. Kisii was selected as the host for many reasons, not least that Kisii is the lead county for health in Western Kenya.

Bertrand Taithe has recognised that this conference is the product of a long partnership between Kisii University and The University of Manchester, along with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Opening remarks from Kisii University: this conference brings together delegates from four continents in the hope that our discussions can have an impact on the value accorded to NCD prevention in Kisii and further afield.

We are being treated to a beautiful choral performance from Kisii University to kick off the first day of the conference on Non-Communicable Diseases and Humanitarian Medicine.

@msf.ca

Brilliant to be on campus here in Kisii University and see these very special conference banners! Please see the previous post for online joining details if you would like to tune in to the conference, which begins tomorrow and will be live-streamed.