Public Health

General Remarks & Links

• The (statistical) number of inhabitants per doctor is given per country in its respective section.

  The average number for Africa is about 15 000 inhabitants / doctor.
  (Min.: Libya: 690; Max.: Burkina Faso: 57 310 (= world maximum (!))

• Africa is served by two WHO Regional Offices:
  1. The Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) in Harare (Zimbabwe). A list of AFRO member states can be found here.
  2. The Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO) in Alexandria (Egypt). The EMRO member states are listed here.

• As far as public health is concerned, African countries are hardly present on the Internet. About 90% of the African WWW servers are located in Southern Africa.

• Africa - Health - a collection from Stanford University

• Acacia Initiative - "an international effort led by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to empower sub-Saharan African communities with the ability to apply information and communication technologies to their own social and economic development. It is expected to involve significant funding during its first five years and to grow to maturity over the first quarter of the 21st century"
• African Human Rights Resource Center - a joint project of the Makerere University Human Rights and Peace Center and the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center

• African Medical and Research Foundation - "Africa's largest indigenous health charity, and for 43 years in partnership with local communities, governments and donors, has worked to research and alleviate Africa's health problems. AMREF's mission is to improve health care among disadvantaged communities in sub-Saharan Africa by helping them establish their own self-sustaining health systems"

• African Movement of Working Children and Youth (AMWCY) - "federates about 30 associations either existing already or in way of constitution, in as many African cities. It is constituted of about 15 000 domestic working girls, market sellers, independent working children and youth from the streets and markets and apprentices"

• African Oral Health Organization - "to ensure that the highest quality dental care is provided to the African population. Through dental health promotion, our aim is to create an environment favorable to the adoption of healthy behaviors such as dental hygiene, nutrition, fluoride intake and dental services utilization"

• Africa South of the Sahara - excellent meta-site providing country-specific and topic-specific access to Internet resources

• African Health Foundation - "an African-based organisation dedicated to health promotion, population control and improving the status of women and children in sub-Saharan Africa"

• African Studies WWW at University of Pennsylvania - excellent meta-site, highly recommended

• African Virtual Library Initiative - "to facilitate the provision of bibliographical and other information online services that meet the needs of educational, research and development work in Eastern Africa, with a view to developing linkages with other regional initiatives to create a truly African virtual library"

• Africa - a collection from CCISD (Canada)

• AFRO-NETS - African Networks for Health Research & Development ( a multitude of networks, highly recommended )

• AIM - African Index Medicus - bibliographical database assembled from various national databases of materials published in African countries on medicine / health, merged with records from WHO, Medline, Popline, etc.

• Association of African Universities

• EQUINET - The Network on Equity in Health in Southern Africa - "a network of research, civil society and health sector organisations. Seeking to develop and widen the conceptual understanding of equity in health, Equinet identifies critical areas of work and policy issues and makes visible existing unfair and avoidable inequalities in health"

• Famafrique - "un espace de communication et d'information pour les femmes d'Afrique francophone qui agissent pour la promotion d'un développement durable"

• FEMNET - "the African Women's Development and Communication Network"

• FEWS - Famine Early Warning System

• Global Health Alliance for Africa - "formed by a group of health care professionals and other concerned individuals from eight different countries in Africa, North America, and Europe. We work with local and international partner agencies and focus on those regions in Africa most in need of medical care, owing to poverty, isolation, and lack of education. By promoting programs that encourage self-reliance and independence, our programs enable Africans to have greater control over their own lives"

• Green Africa Network: Rural Health Care Activities

• Index on Africa - this is an excellent entry point to www-resources on Africa. The site is maintained by The Norwegian Council for Africa (NCA), a non-profit making non governmental organisation

• Internet for NGOs in Africa - "to support the Non Governmental Organisations (NGO) and Community Based Organisations (CBO), particularly in Africa. To reach this aim NGO-NET will use one main tool : the Internet to be able to: foster local, regional and international co-operation in the sector; foster information exchange among those NGOs; foster communication between those NGOs and the "North" organisations"

• Internet in Africa - a project for training and transfer of know-how (originally in French)

• ICRC operations in Africa ( ICRC - International Committee of the Red Cross )

• IRC - International Rescue Committee - " a leading nonsectarian, voluntary organization providing relief, protection and resettlement services for refugees and victims of oppression or violent conflict"

• Life in Africa Foundation - "disseminates uniquely personal & easy to read information about Africa to a rapidly growing public audience. Through free e-mail subscriptions to our publications, readers around the world learn about different ways of life, follow along on adventures, and share in the universal challenges life brings. Contributions to The Life in Africa Foundation are used to promote microfinance institutions in Africa, which make credit and savings services available to the poor, who otherwise have no access to money from banks"

• Multi-Disciplinary African Women's Health Network - a non-governmental organization aiming at improving living and health conditions of African women

• newafrica.com - "based in Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania . We are 40 young East Africans dedicated to publish the best information about Africa on the Internet" - excellent information service for all countries of Africa, a real labor of love, I'd say

• Organization for African Unity (OAU) - "to promote the unity and solidarity of the African States; defend the sovereignty of members; eradicate all forms of colonialism; promote international cooperation having due regard for the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; coordinate and harmonize Member States economic, diplomatic, educational, health, welfare, scientific and defense policies"

• The Population Council - Africa - - a research program to improve the quality and expand the delivery of family planning and reproductive health services in Africa.
  - The Population Council is an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental institution that seeks to improve the wellbeing and reproductive health of current and future generations around the world and to help achieve a humane, equitable, and sustainable balance between people and resources.

• RESSMA - " The countries in North Africa are undergoing an intensive process of demographic, economic, political and social transition. The health systems in the region are suffering from inefficiencies and nequities, and need to meet new epidemiological challenges including aging population and reduction of morbidity related to non-communicable and environmental diseases. Health policy reforms are being implemented in the three Maghreb countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), with a focus on expanding health insurance coverage, decentralization of public health systems, expanding hospital autonomy, strengthening the private sector, and improving the quality of services. To support this process, representatives of ministries of health, research organizations, universities, social security institutions, and provider organizations established a network called RESSMA to share information, experiences and proposals related to health sector reform. Three countries, but could open up to other countries such as Egypt and Mauritania presently represent this network. The network was informally introduced in Ghardaia (South of Algeria) in 1995 and became official in November 1998 in Morocco"

• SADC - Southern African Development Community - focussing on trade resources. Provides economic country profiles for Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

• SANGONeT - Southern Africa's Nonprofit Internet Service Provider - including a long list of health links

• SARDC - Southern African Research and Documentation Centre - "an independent regional information centre involved in the collection, production and dissemination of information about the SARDC region, with offices in Harare, Maputo and Dar es Salaam; and network partners in all SARDC member states, i.e., Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe"

• UNDP - Africa

• USAID Regional Economic Development Services Office For East and Southern Africa (REDSO/ESA)

• Virtual Clearinghouse on Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs - use the search engine on the site and type in "africa" to retrieve documents

• WAHO - West African Health Organization - inter-governmental health organization of West Africa

• WIDNET - Women in Development Network
  - Statistics - Africa : Health

• WWW Virtual Library: African Studies

List of Individual Countries

Site Compass

Reference Note:

This URL:	http://www.ldb.org/vl/geo/africa/index.htm
Last Modified:	3 June 2001
© 1997-2001 by:	Eberhard Wenzel Founded by Lucien E. Schlosser and Eberhard Wenzel © Copyright for the WWW Virtual Library and its logos by WWW Virtual Library