Dr Tsitsi Magure
BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
Research is a strategic part of the national response to HIV and the goal to ending AIDS by 2030, as it seeks to establish a board of knowledge and evidence vital to the development of effective policies and programs, Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr Douglas Mombeshora has said.
Minister Mombeshora revealed this in a speech read on his behalf by Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tsitsi Magure, at the National AIDS Council (NAC) HIV Research Symposium which was held in Harare on Monday and Tuesday.
The symposium which was held under the theme, “Accelerating 95-95-95 HIV targets among children”, was meant to disseminate HIV and AIDS research findings.
NAC organised the symposium in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI), the University of Zimbabwe and CeSHHAR.
Dr Mombeshora said the HIV symposium was an important platform to bring research findings and recommendations to the notice of policymakers and program implementers.
“Even though we have had HIV for decades now, we are still to find the best solutions to effectively address all the facets of the challenges presented by this pandemic.
“Part of this is due to the fact that HIV has continued to evolve, both in how we understand it and the challenges it presents. “This evolution cannot occur without research and the sort of evidence.
“Research is a very strategic part of the national response to HIV, which seeks to establish a board of knowledge and evidence vital to the development of effective policies and programs.
“The knowledge and evidence have become even more relevant as the focus is now on ending AIDS by 2030,” said Minister Mombeshora.
He added that research has enabled the country to effectively bring HIV under epidemic control and assist with vital protection and treatment services.
Minister Mombeshora further revealed that the symposium and various other platforms were important to share research findings, which fits well with the goal of ending AIDS by 2030.
“Our national response can only improve when we subject specific programs to scrutiny and such, the majority of the operational research studies on the program over the next two days are focused on specific issues of importance to effective
Implementation and management of programs on the ground.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is a fact that a lot of research findings are profound to the response of HIV and is taking place in Zimbabwe.
“Much of it is however going unreported and not shared, partly because of lack of platforms to do so.
“This symposium is therefore a critical component of the response that should be supported and strengthened.
“All related research should be shared so that the findings can receive the relevant scrutiny endorsement so that our response can be enriched.
“I’m glad that several layers of policy makers are in participation at this symposium.
“This is intended to ensure that they understand and appreciate the evidence around our policies and interventions that anchor the response to HIV.
“We therefore look forward to an advancement of our policies around HIV as a result of this symposium.”
He added: “the response to HIV is now geared towards ending AIDS by 2030 and it is crucial that we direct resources where there is great need, where the impact will be greatest.
“Sharing research findings is a major step in that direction as a push towards sustainability of the response.
“We should therefore conduct scientific inquiry, to identify the exact contributions of our programs so that we can amplify those interventions that are proven to proffer maximum results. “Evidence of efficacy and effectiveness is critical in this regard.”
NAC Chief Executive Officer, Dr Bernard Madzima in a speech read on his behalf by the organisation’s Monitoring and Evaluation Director, Amon Mpofu, echoed similar sentiments as he said evidence was important in informing decision making both at policy and program levels.
“The path to ending AIDS by 2030 now highly requires the use of evidence in strategic information to optimize the response and move away from one size fits all interventions, to people and geographic specific interventions whose effectiveness has been proven.
“As the coordinator of the national response to HIV, we are fully aware that evidence and strategic information are part of our broader mandate, and to ensure that we use this evidence.
“These include the HIV and AIDS research priorities.
“I hope you have seen and are making use of the HIV AIDS research database, the HIV AIDS research support grants and this platform to disseminate the findings,” said Dr Madzima.
He added that the program had a wide diversity of research papers which were selected from over a record of 180 and some came from as far as Botswana, hence it was a regional sort of event.
“The technical organizing committee informs us that although over half of submissions were rejected; it was not entirely on lack of depth but competitive nature of the program which required limited papers.
“Our program this year has three breakaway sessions in line with the international best practices for similar symposiums to optimize for the participants’ interests,” he added.
