By Chioma Obinna

 The Commonwealth Medical Association, CMA, has won the bid to host a session at the 2022 People’s Forum of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) billed to hold in June in Kigali, Rwanda.

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 hold 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 CHOGMwould be holding 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.

Commenting on the development,  the President of the Commonwealth Medical Association , CMA, Dr.Osahon Enabulele, said 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.

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.

Enabulele said 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.

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 to quickly indicate so through the email address: [email protected], he 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 among healthcare professionals and workers in the Commonwealth of Nations.”