The African Union (AU)/NEPAD: The NEPAD Secretariat has welcomed the creation of ACHEST in a letter of support to the Executive Director. The African Union Commission invited ACHEST to participate at the AU Health Ministers Conference in May 2009 as a Civil Society Organisation. AU/NEPAD is interested in enrolling ACHEST as a civil society member and sign a Memorandum of Understanding.

• WHO including The Regional Director of WHO in Africa has been informed of this initiative and have welcomed and shown interest in collaboration;


• The office of the United Nations Secretary General has a strong interest in Global Health and is in touch with ACHEST.
  The ACHEST ED was an invited to speaker at the ECOSOC Ministerial Review in Geneva at a special session dedicated to Africa in 6 - 9 June 2009.


• The Rockefeller Foundation (RF): has contracted ACHEST as Principal lnvestigator along with Jo Ivey Boufford, President of the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM) to undertake a study of needs and feasibility of developing mechanisms for supporting Ministerial Health Leadership for low and middle income countries. A report of this study will be submitted to Rockefeller Foundation in September 2009.
  A stakeholder consultation was held in at the RF Bellagio conference centre in March 2009 convened by ACHEST and the NYAM


• Ministry of Health Uganda is working with ACHEST to document the experience with Health Sector Reforms that were undertaken by the country in the past decade. This work started in 2005 but was interrupted by the departure of ACHEST Executive Director for Geneva that year.
  Additional funding will be needed to finalise the work.


• The MoH Uganda requested ACHEST to undertake a study to track and establish the location of graduates from the two Public Medical Schools in Uganda who graduated over the past several years. This study is in progress.


• The Ministry of Defence in Uganda with a grant from WHO has contracted ACHEST to support the MoD to develop a military Health Policy for Uganda.
• The Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at WHO Headquarters has contracted ACHEST to carry out an evaluation of the Health Policy Analysis Unit ant the Ministry of Health in Uganda as apart of a wider study analysing Policy Analysis centres in low income countries.
• The Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health is a Gates funded project based at Realising Rights at the Aspen Institute;
  Washington DC has appointed the Executive Director to serve as a Senior Adviser.
  This work is in progress in five countries, four in Africa - Ethiopia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Nepal in Asia.


• ACHEST Executive Director is a co-chair together with Dr Fitzhugh Mullan of George Washington University of the Sub-Saharan African Medical
  Schools Study(SAMMS) a project funded by the Gates Foundation that is investigating the capacity needs of all African Medical Schools.
  The secretariat is based at the George Washington University in Washington.


• Academic Institutions in Africa and abroad have expressed interest in collaborating with ACHEST and some joint projects are under discussion;


• ACHEST will be an open and inclusive player and will forge partnerships with a wide range of like-minded institutions in Africa and abroad.
  Will seek to play the role of advocate and connector in the areas of work described.
  ACHEST will also seek partnerships with developed country agencies with similar goals.