CMA wins bid to host session at 2022 CHOGM People’s Forum

This year’s People’s Forum of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) billed to hold in June in Kigali, Rwanda, has been given a major boost with the announcement of the successful bid of the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) to host a session at the 2022 CHOGM People’s Forum.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting is an annual meeting of all Heads of Government in the 54 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The CHOGM meeting was unable to be held in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, as a result of recent developments, the Commonwealth Secretariat in London had announced that a physical meeting of CHOGM would be held in June in Kigali, Rwanda. This announcement has led to a flurry of activities in Kigali city of Rwanda, in preparation for the CHOGM meeting, of which the People’s Forum is a very significant part.

As part of preparations for the 2022 GHOGM People’s Forum, the Commonwealth Foundation had called on individuals, organizations and groups to submit bids for organization of sessions at the People’s Forum, in line with the adopted themes for CHOGM.

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In response to this, the Commonwealth Medical Association (CMA) ably led by its President, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, had formally submitted her bid to the Commonwealth Foundation. Following a critical appraisal of the submitted bids by a Review Panel of the Commonwealth Foundation, the successful bids for the only available six (6) sessions were formally announced by the Foundation, with the bid of the Commonwealth Medical Association among the successful bids.

With this development, the Commonwealth Medical Association has been granted approval to host a session on the opening day of the 2022 CHOGM People’s Forum billed for Tuesday, June 21, 2022.

In his address to the media, the President of the CMA, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, stated that the CMA was excited at the approval given to her by the Commonwealth Foundation to host a session at the Kigali 2022 CHOGM People’s Forum.

He stated that this was a great fillip to the CMA’s earlier commitment to organize a special Summit on Human Resource for Health in advance of the CMA declarations at her November 2021 Conference/Council meeting, amongst which was a declaration calling on the Heads of Government in the Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Secretariat to declare a state of emergency on Human Resource for Health (HRH) in the Commonwealth based on the poor state of HRH in the LMIC countries and its negative impact on the quest for attainment of Universal Health Coverage.

He informed the media that he will be leading a 30-member delegation of the CMA to the session which will be centered on the current crisis of Human Resource for Health and its link with health inequality in the Commonwealth of Nations.

While calling on physicians, health administrators, other health professionals and stakeholders who wish to join the CMA delegation to the CMA session billed to hold on June 21, 2022 at 2pm Kigali time, to quickly indicate so through the email address: [email protected], Dr. Enabulele stated that a team of experts have been assembled to brainstorm on the chosen theme of the CMA session: “Human Resource for Health and Health inequality in the Commonwealth: a Critical Appraisal of Brain Drain amongst healthcare professionals and workers in the Commonwealth of Nations.”