Channelling Diaspora Contributions into Measurable Health Gains in Cameroon
Overview
This policy brief synthesises key insights from the Cameroon Town Hall for Healthcare Professionals meeting held on November 2, 2024, focusing on 'The Giveback Project: Cameroon Diaspora Supporting Health Initiatives in Cameroon'.
Context
Cameroonians abroad and at home already fund clinics, diagnostic centres, radiotherapy, maternal health campaigns and training, but much of this work is self funded, unrecorded and uncoordinated. The town hall's Giveback Project aims to make these contributions visible, measurable and aligned with national priorities until 2029, and a committee at MINSANTE now exists to facilitate diaspora investment in health.
Key issues
- Invisible contributions. Many diaspora projects are not documented, so their impact cannot be measured or replicated.
- Financing gaps. International investors prefer government backed projects, leaving diaspora initiatives largely self funded.
- Operating standards. Equipment fails without reliable power, water, trained operators and maintenance technicians.
- Sustainability. Free campaigns help in the short term but depend on repeated donations; economic empowerment lasts longer.
- Skills for proposals and evaluation. Community initiatives often lack the proposal, grant writing and monitoring skills needed to attract support.
Discussion highlights
- Examples presented included CLEAR Radiology (Buea), Premier Health Centre (Douala), the Cameroon Oncology Center (Douala) and Unite for Health's work in Misaje.
- Participants proposed sessions on proposal development, grant writing and monitoring and evaluation.
- Pooled diaspora investment funds were suggested as an alternative to international finance.
- Interoperability was urged for any electronic health record work under MINSANTE's digital health plan.
- Home delivery, about 40% nationally, was cited as a reason to back safe delivery projects.
Recommendations
- Create a diaspora health project register. MINSANTE's diaspora committee, with the town hall, should keep a public register of diaspora health projects with location, type, cost and results. First step: adopt the town hall's reporting template and invite members to submit projects.
- Recognise completed projects. MINSANTE should issue certificates of recognition for completed and reported Giveback projects, as proposed, to encourage reporting and replication.
- Facilitate approvals and pooled finance. MINSANTE and finance partners should simplify permits for diaspora health facilities and explore a pooled diaspora health investment fund with clear governance.
- Align projects with the WHO building blocks and local plans. Diaspora professionals should base projects on a community needs assessment and align them with regional delegation plans, including workforce, information systems and medicines, not only infrastructure.
- Build capacity for proposals and evaluation. The town hall and diaspora experts should run sessions on proposal writing, grant applications and monitoring and evaluation for community health initiatives.
- Plan for operation and maintenance. Investors and donors should budget for power, water, staff training and equipment maintenance from the start, and partner with district hospitals rather than working alone.
Next steps
Preliminary results of the town hall's needs assessment survey were to be shared in a coming session. Sessions on proposal development and grant writing were proposed, and members were invited to submit project videos.
Conclusion
Diaspora contributions to Cameroon's health system are already substantial. Recording them, aligning them with national priorities and supporting them with sound planning and finance would multiply their impact by 2029.
Meeting minutes
Agenda
- Welcome and opening remarks by Elvis Ndansi, Dr. Bryan Tegomoh and the chair
- French welcome by Dr. Marthe-Sandrine Mpollo
- Recap of the Giveback Project concept by Elvis Ndansi
- Giveback stories by video: CLEAR Radiology (Buea), Unite for Health in Misaje, Cameroon Oncology Center, Premier Health Centre Douala
- Remarks by Prof. Theodore Ngatchu on investing in health care in Cameroon
- Areas of investment and the needs assessment survey by Dr. Bryan Tegomoh
- Open discussion
- Closing remarks and next meeting
Opening remarks
- Elvis Ndansi explained that the session revisited the Giveback Project because the first presentation on it had been disrupted when the town hall's meeting was hacked.
- Dr. Bryan Tegomoh noted a busy fortnight in global health, including a new Lancet Commission report and progress on the pandemic accord.
- The chair thanked participants for the two day breast cancer seminar, which had more than 50 participants each day, and said such capacity building is itself part of the Giveback Project. He stressed that the town hall is open to engineers, IT and AI specialists as well as health workers.
Presentation
1. The concept
Elvis Ndansi described the Giveback Project as a town hall initiative to channel the expertise and resources of Cameroonians in the diaspora, and of professionals at home, into tangible, measurable community health projects. The unit is 'your village', meaning wherever a person identifies as home. Its objectives are to empower health professionals, use diaspora knowledge and resources to improve health in villages, and address the challenges of local health centres.
2. How a project should be run
Participants were encouraged to start with a needs assessment of their community or health centre, design the project with clear targets, mobilise resources (personal funds, partners or fundraising, with a support letter from the town hall if needed), and implement it with local health centres, chiefs and pastors. Each project should include monitoring and evaluation, a sustainability plan and sharing of lessons. The town hall planned a proposal template and a platform to record every member's project.
3. Recognition and a five year horizon
The project runs until 2029, when the town hall aims to quantify what the diaspora has achieved in impact and money spent. Mr. Ndansi said the Minister of Public Health would be encouraged to give certificates of recognition for completed projects, and that a committee at the Ministry now exists to facilitate diaspora investment in health. He stressed that the town hall itself has never raised or managed funds and remains a volunteer, 'zero money' organisation.
4. Example: CLEAR Radiology and Premier Health Centre
Videos showed CLEAR Radiology Medical Plaza in Buea, founded by medical physicist Sidney Tazeh, and Premier Health Centre in Douala, founded by Prof. Theodore Ngatchu. Prof. Ngatchu advised diaspora investors to build services that match the standard of where they live, which requires reliable power, 24 hour running water, hygiene, trained operators and technicians to maintain equipment, since many machines in Cameroon stay broken for months. He said profit should not be the priority, that international funders prefer government backed projects, and that diaspora pooled investment funds could fill the gap.
5. Example: Unite for Health in Misaje
Mr. Ndansi presented Unite for Health Foundation's work in Misaje subdivision (Donga-Mantung, Northwest region). The yearly Sha Festival, begun in 2013 around hygiene in houses selling the local corn drink 'sha', has become an economic empowerment event for over 100 women, with scholarships for 25 vulnerable students and farm inputs in 2024. On March 6 to 7, 2024, a free antenatal campaign at the district hospital provided consultations, ultrasound, education and mama kits. The foundation is fundraising for a maternity clinic in Misaje subdivision with solar power, a borehole and internet for teleconsultation, with a gala planned for December 5.
6. Example: Cameroon Oncology Center
The chair shared a video on the Cameroon Oncology Center in Douala, which he described as a diaspora initiated project and the only centre in Cameroon with a working linear accelerator, while the cobalt unit at the public general hospital is often down. He said it showed the diaspora can fill major gaps in partnership with those at home.
7. Where to invest: the WHO building blocks
Dr. Tegomoh presented the WHO framework for health system strengthening to show that giving back need not be limited to service delivery: health workforce development, health information systems and AI, medical products and vaccines (including diagnostics and PCR capacity), financing, and leadership and governance all need investment. He shared the town hall's needs assessment survey link and said preliminary results would be presented in a coming session. He cited Prof. Ngatchu's point that diaspora members should transfer what works where they live.
Discussion and Q&A
- A public health professional in the UK asked whether the town hall could hold a session on writing proposals for health interventions, including monitoring and evaluation across the project cycle. Mr. Ndansi and the chair welcomed the idea and asked him to help identify experts. Dr. Tegomoh added grant writing for funders such as the NIH, CDC, WHO and the Wellcome Trust. He later suggested co-creation: diaspora members from the same area pooling efforts so that a track record at small scale attracts donors.
- The chair asked how free campaigns such as the Misaje antenatal event can be sustained. Mr. Ndansi said sustainability is a challenge; annual events supported by repeat donors help, but economic empowerment of women is more sustainable than free goods because it lets them pay for care themselves. He added that even with money, supplies are sometimes unavailable in village pharmacies.
- A chat question asked how electronic health records could be introduced in Cameroon's public and private sectors. Mr. Ndansi advised starting with MINSANTE's National Digital Health Strategic Plan, which he shared in the chat, and the Ministry's IT and digital health division, and urged that interoperability be planned from the start to avoid the siloed systems seen in the USA.
Calls to action and closing
- Nwabufo Françoise, a nurse practitioner working with out of camp refugees, described paying school fees for about 50 children, start up support for parents, and five women in her community who had delivered at home since July, one alone. Mr. Ndansi noted that home delivery remains about 40% in Cameroon.
- The chair highlighted a participant's foundation, which runs a health centre and community education, sickle cell and cervical cancer screening with telemedicine, self funded for over ten years.
- Pictures were shown of a health centre being built by a diaspora member in the West region.
- Dr. Tegomoh congratulated Dr. Yauba Saidu (CHAI), Nwabufo Françoise, Elvis Ndansi, Dr. Foma and colleagues on their paper on sickle cell disease in Cameroon (PLOS Global Public Health, October 24, 2024), drawn from the Mfou health district, which recommended routine screening, infection prevention, community engagement and workforce capacity.
- The chair announced plans for an accredited diaspora lecture team for medical, nursing, pharmacy and public health students, noting the University of Buea medical school's interest.
- Mr. Ndansi invited members to submit videos of their projects for a five minute slot in future sessions.
Next meeting
In two weeks (expected Saturday, November 16, 2024); topic to be announced.
Submitted by the Co-Moderators, Cameroon Town Hall for Healthcare Professionals.
