You are cordially invited to submit a paper to the 17th Congress of The Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) Botswana 2023 on the 16th – 20th October 2023, at University of Botswana Conference Centre, Plot No: 4775 Notwane rd, Gaborone, Botswana. The theme of the conference is “Equitable Access to Health Information: The Key to Better Health”.
AHILA was founded in Nairobi on Thursday 23 August 1984 under the name – Association of Medical Librarians in Africa (AMLA). The name later changed in 1988 to the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA), to cater for those who are interested in health information issues and may not be librarians. To date has over 252 members from 46 member countries, 15 country chapters, 17 international conferences and more than 45 partners and collaborators worldwide. AHILA members are librarians, information specialists, organisations and commercial companies with an interest in health sciences information. AHILA recognises that tremendous progress has been made toward providing health information in Africa, in part because of technological advancements. Nevertheless, ensuring that information is accessible, comprehensible, and usable remains problematic, and there is need in many settings to address issues such as computer skills, literacy, and the infrastructure to access information.
It is on that premise that AHILA developed a vision to become a leader in promoting access and use of health information in Africa through provision of up-to-date and relevant health information. The association encourages professional development of health librarians, promote resource sharing in Africa through development and standardisation of health databases. The AHILA realised that in order to achieve its goal it has to actively engage with key stakeholders, for technical support and sometimes funding of some projects or capacity building initiatives. Such realization saw the forming of partnerships with institutions or organization including National Library of Medicine, World Health Organisation, ITOCA, INASP, Network of African Medical Librarians (NAMLA), HINARI (WHO and Major Publishers introduced in 2002 by former UN secretary General Kofi Anan at UN summit).
The 17th Congress of The Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa (AHILA) is a deeper and practical interpretation of the health information. It thus aims to draw lessons and benchmarks around digital technologies, data science, research, modern library spaces and structures as contributors to equitable access to health information and services. It will provide participants with the tools necessary to implement the above-mentioned lessons and benchmarks by offering hands-on workshops on evidence synthesis (systematic reviews), research and data manage (RedCap), information brokering and array of health information tools. You are invited to submit abstracts for papers, and or posters, and lightning talks addressing the themes and or sub-themes below: [All submitted abstracts, papers, posters and lightining talks will be subjected to double-blind peer review process. Participants will be given a soft copy certificate of attendance and the conference proceedings will be published in PDF on the conference website]
Important dates:
Call for Abstracts: 19th January 2023
Deadline for Abstracts Submission: 30th May 2023
Acceptance note: 30th June 2023
Deadline for Submission of Full Paper: 31st July 2023
Deadline for Submission of PowerPoint Presentation: 22nd September 2023
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