The Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) annual symposium took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 7^th – 9^th August 2012. The theme was “Building Partnerships and enhancing Sustainability”.

The symposium attracted over 250 participants including Principal Investigators from the MEPI schools and coordinating centers, team members from the MEPI schools, government and non-governmental  organizations’ representatives, international partners and medical students. The opening ceremony was graced by the USA ambassador to Ethiopia, Donald Booth and Ethiopia’s ministry of Education and Health.

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Prof. Omaswa adressing symposium delegates

The ACHEST ED, Prof Omaswa who is the PI for the  African MEPI coordinating Centre,  delivered speech that framed the symposium entitled “Framing the conference: where were we; where are we; where do we go next.” The speech detailed the rise and growth of human resources for health agenda noting that the global movement on HRH has gained momentum and is top on the agenda. “African continent is more hopeful today than ever before with increased demand for accountability and gender equality, the environment for MEPI is indeed favorable”, Prof. Omaswa said.

The MEPI schools shared their successes, discussed their challenges and ways to innovate further with focus on how to make the gains from MEPI last beyond the initiative.

ACHEST, in its role as the MEPI African Coordinating Center, took part in the preparation of the symposium. The symposium was organized by the MEPI coordinating center at George Washington University and ACHEST in partnership with Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), National Institutes of Health (NHI) and the University of Addis Ababa was the host institution.

The meeting was closed by Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S Global AIDS Coordinator.