OPENING
SPEECH BY THE NIMR DIRECTOR GENERAL, Dr. MWELECELE MALECELA DURING THE 30TH
ANNUAL JOINT SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MEDICAL
RESEARCH, ARUSHA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE CENTRE, ARUSHA, TANZANIA, 4TH
OCTOBER 2016
Guest of Honour Your Excellency Vice President of
the United Republic of Tanzania, Mama Samia Suluhu Hassan,
Hon Hamis Kigwangala Deputy Minister of Health
Community Development Gender Women Children and the Elderly,
Prof. Samuel Massele, Former NIMR Council Chairman
Former NIMR Director Generals
Directors, Ministry of Health & Social Welfare,
Directors, National Institute for Medical Research,
Our distinguished Keynote speakers
Our distinguished awardees
Our distinguished sponsors
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Distinguished
delegates, ladies and gentlemen
Good Morning!!!
Let me thank God Almighty for giving us the grace of this new day and the
bringing us together for this very important meeting. I am delighted to welcome you all to Julius
Nyerere Convention Centre for the Annual
Joint Scientific Conference of the National Institute for Medical Research.
This years event marks the 30th time that researchers and policy
makers meet to debate and dialogue on issues that matter; and finally agree on what
will be the next steps toward ensuring that the goal of improving health of our
population in the context of the sustainable Development Goals are achieved
with a great measure of success. As host let me welcome you to Tanzania for
those from outside Tanzania let me welcome you to Dar and here to the
convention Centre.
Ladies and gentlemen
Let me start by congratulating Your Excellency on your appointment as
Vice President and it gives me great pride and joy to recognize the fact that
you are the first female vice president of our country. You are an inspiration
to many of us. Congratulations.
Secondly we thank you for availing time off your busy schedule to be with
us today it is a privilege and an honour for you to open our first meeting
since the fifth phase government begun but also our 30th meeting.
Your Excellency when one reaches 30 years it is considered a time of maturity,
we believe that this conference has indeed matured and moved form strength to
strength with international visibility. The 200 plus abstracts the 300 plus
attendance and the 17 countries are testament to the fact that we have grown
and we have indeed matured. With maturity comes learning and understanding
about what work s and what doesn't and the fact that sometimes your greatest
successes lie in your greatest setbacks. We have learned we have grown.
I would like to join my colleagues to mourn our fellow researchers who
died in the course of duty. It is crucial that people recognize the work of
researchers and the role of research it is sad and unacceptable that people
should have to work in such circumstances.
The main goal of
this year’s conference is to create a platform for more focused discussions and
deliberations on innovative research to address the sustainable development
goals. The global community has devoted itself to attaining 17 goals which if
reached will result in a more developed and more balanced world. It is clear
that health, which is goal number 3, plays a central part to addressing these
goals.
Health has a link
to each and every one of the 17 goals and rightfully so because health is the
existence of human kind. Right from no poverty which includes addressing health
rights of the poor, to reduce hunger which focuses on malnutrition to healthy
cities and environments health has an integral part in each one. It is for this
reason then that research linked to the SDGS through a health lens is
important. The beauty of this approach however forces us health researchers to
recognize that it is only through multidisciplinary multifaceted approach that
our research will have a true impact on development. It reminds us again and
again that while we always take a siloed approach health cannot be viewed in
isolation. Sustainable development will happen only when health is taken as a
part of the whole.
The number of topics and themes that are being
discussed here today are testament to that fact. Apart form our major thematic sessions we
will have two symposia one on Safe water and one on taking innovations to scale
and we will have two very significant roundtable sessions one on women in
science and the other on Alternative mechanisms for funding health research. I
would urge you to attend some of these key events as well your own areas of
choice.
Ladies and gentlemen
At this
conference, we also want to share with, and get feedback from you
regarding what NIMR and other health researchers in and outside the country
have been doing since the last conference. But more so, the conference is
designed to keep you informed of the most important developments in the field
and to give you the opportunity to share emerging challenges and best practices
with your colleagues, all of which are geared towards improving health and
wellbeing of our people. We have made this conference as diverse as possible so
that the levels of engagement are broad and will result in multidisciplinary
networks.
Tanzania is a
force to reckon with at Regional and Global level in the health sciences. We
must however use our comparative advantages wisely and while competition may be
healthy and spur innovation in our cases where resources are limited it might
be detrimental. Let us ensure that we have strategic cross-institutional
networks that do not duplicate but complement.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen; today we will be honouring five
outstanding Tanzanians who have done amazing work in the field of health
research. We will be honouring one for her distinguished contribution to health
research. She will be recognized for her political will and creating an
environment to make health research possible. The other awardees will include
those for best national health researcher, prize for best research innovation,
an award for the prolific publication and finally the lifetime achievement
award. I would like to recognize the hard and critical work of the awards
committee. It is their rigour and commitment to merit that has allowed us to
get our winners today. Your Excellency there is a Swahili saying Mcheza Kwao
hutuzwa. He who dances at home is rewarded. We at NIMR have built a culture of
rewarding our own throughout the country and these are our fourth awards. The
awards serve as appreciation to those who have worked hard and quietly to
improve the health of Tanzanians through research but also as an inspiration to
others who dare to tread in our paths.
Let me to thank you, Honourable Minister for Health,
Community Development, Gender Women, Children and the Elderly, Dr Hamisi
Kigwangalla and your team at the Ministry for your inspiring leadership, for
your vision in identifying important health needs for the people of this
country, your commitment to tackling them with creative, bold initiatives and
staying with them until the solutions are institutionalized.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many organizations that
have supported this and many similar conferences. I turn to our sponsors with a
deep sense of gratitude. This meeting could not have happened without you. If
ever there was a crowd-sourced meeting this is one of them. Your eagerness to
give both financially and in kind has really shown the goodwill you have
towards science and research and we really appreciate your support.
I would like to thank my wonderful secretariat under the leadership of
Leonard Mboera. Each of them really worked endlessly to make this meeting a
success.
At the end of our speeches we like to say please find some time to enjoy
Dar-es-salaam and then we cram a very heavy program down your throats. Still I
do hope you will find time after the meeting to visit parts of our beautiful
country. And if you do not get time this time please come back and visit.
Thank you very much Karibuni na Ahsanten.
No comments:
Post a Comment