Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust (MLW) recently hosted a meeting for Global Health Bioethics Network (GHBN). This was the first GHBN Africa regional meeting which saw the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), South Africa’s African Health Research Institute (ARHI) and the host Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust converge to share and interact from the 18th to the 20th of September 2018.

During the regional meeting representatives from the Africa Asia Programmes (AAPs) gave presentations on various research projects in their countries. Representatives shared lessons learnt, theories of change, methods for research implementation and the processes of monitoring and evaluation carried out in their respective research areas.

The AAPs discussed and presented issues in attempt to improve the methods used by individual MOPs in executing their research objectives. The meeting also provided the teams with an opportunity to collectively evaluate their various projects, learn from each other and collaborate on future projects.

Speaking on the last day of the meeting, a representative of KEMRI Noni Mumba noted that the presentations and discussions revealed similarities of research work but there were some differences in the ways of performing some duties.

“We are in Africa and are from low income communities therefore we have similarities in the type of population that we serve but how we do our work is different. The meeting provided the teams with an opportunity to learn from each other and make improvements where necessary,” said Mumba.

The meeting not only provided the teams with a chance to interact, but it also gave them an opportunity to experience and appreciate firsthand the interventions and engagements made by MLW in communities of interest. This was done on the last day of the meeting, when the teams went for a site visit in Chiradzulu district.