AFRO-NETS> Comments on health community

[Mukeba Lufuluabo <mukeba@hotmail.com>]

Comments on health community
----------------------------

Coming from a training and educational background, I was reluctant to 
accept the invitation to have my name on this list, until some friends 
from the health sector encouraged me that I would survive the 'medi-
calese' (language). After only few days of watching discussions, I 
think that I should congratulate you guys for such an initiative. What-
ever the difficulty for an information/communication system as well as 
the obvious scarcity of resources as rightly reflected in your discus-
sions, the health sector - even by African standards - is way far ahead 
compared to the educational sector. You have standards, protocols, a 
common language among yourselves... etc. ....Above all, there's a set 
of competencies and qualifications agreed upon that every health staff 
is expected to hold in order to perform in the health community. Fur-
thermore, the flow of communication and interaction between the north 
and the south looks quite extensive.

No such a thing exists in the educational sector. I have seen actual 
'amateurs' heading an entire evaluation department for an entire minis-
try of education in an African country. An entire education IMS of an 
entire country in the hands of a highly paid TA whose own skills didn't 
qualify for such an important position; so much so that the TA was 
shadowed with his own 'TA'. There's little interaction between north 
and south; very few strong schools of education (in the US) with strong 
foundations in African or development education (the few which existed 
have disappeared for lack of funding). 

Therefore, there's little of a 'paradigm' shared by an almost non-
existent community. Of course, we have indicators and so forth most of 
which are universal, though some are contextual. UNESCO was paralysed 
for a number of years. I would add that if there were US people from 
the educational sector needed to go work with their fellow Africans, 
these would have come from rural education programs. I'm not trying to 
equate here educational problems and issues in the US with those in Af-
rica.

The conclusion (of my long statement, excuse my French rhetoric) is 
that you're doing far better in the health sector. Keep on with the 
great job, and with your community.

Mukeba C. Lufuluabo 
(from DRC, in Atlanta)
mailto:mlufuluabo@aol.com

PS: I'm trying to find Mr Tharcisse Muamba who is in the health sector
    in West Africa?

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