News

The Ministry of Health – Kenya together with partners including the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) will host the 1st Adolescent Health Symposium in Nairobi from October 27 ““ 28, 2015 to discuss the wellbeing of adolescents and also provide a platform for sharing innovations and strategies towards improving adolescent health.

This symposium will bring together government officials, development partners, learning institutions, adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights, HIV experts, public and private practitioners and implementing partners.

The theme for the symposium is Evolving Challenges In Adolescent Health: Reflecting On Post 2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

The symposium aims to position adolescent health in the post-2015 development agenda by enhancing shared understanding of the key concepts in adolescent health; highlighting key challenges in adolescent health; identifying experiences, innovations and best practices in adolescent health programming and highlighting mechanisms of ensuring adolescents are key players in their own health.

The symposium will also focus on the current trends in managing mental health; emerging issues in Adolescent Sexual Reproductive Health (ASRH), reigniting debates on alcohol and drug abuse; HIV and AIDS response; reversing the trends and unearthing the reality of non communicable diseases (NCDs) among the adolescents.

The symposium comes in the wake of increasing media reports of adolescents getting involved in early sex and drug abuse, among other risky behaviours. It is therefore hoped that the symposium will provide evidence-driven solutions to tackling these challenges in the country.

The chief guest will be Dr Nicholas Muraguri, Director of Medical Services, Ministry of Health. Other key speakers include Dr Eliya Zulu, Executive Director, AFIDEP, Mr Albert Obbuyi, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Adolescence (CSA); Dr Alex Ezeh, Executive Director, African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and Dr Pirkko Heinonen, Ag Representative, UNICEF ““ Kenya.

An interesting Science Policy Café on Optimizing Investments in Adolescents to Harness the Demographic Dividend will take place on October 28 and will be moderated by Dr Zulu.

The panelists on this session include Hon Ken Okoth, Kibra MP, Dr Josephine Kibaru-Mbae, Director General, National Council for Population and Development (NCPD), Mr Siddharth Chatterjee, Country Representative, UNFPA, Prof Khama Rogo, Lead Health Specialist Africa, IFC/World Bank and Mr John Omiti, Executive Director, The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA).