The Constituency for Africa (CFA), a Washington based education and advocacy organization, will focus attention on improving the healthcare infrastructure in Africa as part of its 2015 strategy.
Founded in 1990, and now in its 25th year of operation, the CFA has emerged as a leading organization for mobilizing public and private support for Africa in Washington, DC. Please visit http://www.cfa-network.org for more information.
The CFA is planning to launch this African healthcare infrastructure initiative in February with a stakeholders' forum in Washington. The forum will bring together senior officials and leaders in the African Union and African Diplomatic Corps, Obama Administration, Congress, World Bank, private sector, and the Diaspora. A high-level advisory committee of experts will lead this effort with a goal of dramatically improving the healthcare infrastructure across the African Continent. CFA Interim Chairman, Dr. Moore, will Chair this group. Dr. Moore has extensive background stemming from his extensive government service, including as Assistant Surgeon General during the George H. W. Bush Administration.
Cannabis Science President and CEO Raymond C. Dabney will also serve as a co-chair of this new CFA Health Roundtable. Cannabis Science, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is dedicated to the discovery and development of cannabis-based medicines. CBIS will be using its expertise in cannabinoid research with the CFA’s multiple strengths and relationships to help further the cause in Africa of treating diseases and symptoms of diseases including cancer, relief from severe pain, and some AIDS-related illnesses. Through this effort, CBIS and the CFA will focus on educational systems and the overall healthcare infrastructure of the Continent.
Dr. Moore stated, “The CFA enjoys direct access to a number of the key stakeholders including the head of the African Union and Presidents of various African nations, senior leaders in the US Congress, President Obama, key officials in the Administration, World Bank officials, private sector leaders and most importantly with a range of Diaspora leaders and experts in healthcare and other fields, who have much to offer in the effort to help Africa. We can effectively bring these voices together to generate the needed momentum and investment to dramatically improve the healthcare infrastructure over the coming years.”
CFA’s President and CEO, Mr. Melvin Foote, believes the time is right to launch an initiative to strengthen healthcare in Africa, stating, “The Ebola epidemic has been a tremendous wake-up call about the weak state of healthcare infrastructure in the countries strickened by the disease, particularly in the midst of the AIDS crisis.
As Ebola rapidly spread to a number of countries in and outside of Africa, the entire world has finally realized that we are all at risk if we continue to ignore the plight of people in Africa, as any disease is only a plane ride away. We are extremely welcoming of Mr. Dabney and Cannabis Science's aggressive leadership."
Since the summer, the Ebola crisis has resulted in more than 6,000 deaths in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and has had a devastating effect on the economies in these countries, as well as other affected countries in the region. Schools have been closed, hospitals have become non-functional and civil society has ground to a halt. The urgent need for a much improved health infrastructure in the region and across Africa, has never been so apparent as it is now. It is clear that Ebola has been able to spread so quickly in and around urban areas in the region because of the lack of disease surveillance, of proper training of healthcare workers, and of basic medicines and needed medical technologies.
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The CFA was a pioneer in the battle against HIV and AIDS 14 years ago. Under the leadership of the then Chairman of the Board, former US Congressman Ron Dellums, the CFA sized up the pandemic early and went on the offense and pressed for a global response, proposing an “AIDS Marshall Plan” to address the various aspects of the pandemic. The concept of CFA's AIDS Marshall Plan was a precursor to President George W. Bush’s landmark humanitarian program in 2003, PEPFAR, The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The massive funding increases have, among other things, made critical anti-retroviral therapies widely available in Africa, saving millions of lives.
Constituency for Africa (CFA)
Melvin Foote
Tel: (202) 255-8893
E-mail: mfoote2420@aol.com
316 F STREET, NE, SUITE 101, WASHINGTON, D.C. 20002
PHONE (202) 371-0588 FAX (202) 371-9017
