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What positive excitement this prize has generated all over the world! So many websites carried the announcement. Announced as the recipient of the inaugural Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Services, I have received messages of encouragement from all over the world. This excitement has been highest in Africa. This has come across to me as causing the most positive and exciting wave in the health sector over the continent. "Slogging for people" has acquired a new AND positive meaning! What joy!! Asking why this excitement in Africa, below are some ideas that come to me.
First of all, this prize-giving time is linked to the Tokyo International Conference on Africa's Development (TICAD) that the Government of Japan initiated some years back. Africans working in development have noted, with appreciation, that the Government of Japan was the first Government to host a consultation which focused on development with African Heads of State invited to the host country. To have timed the awarding of this prize at the time of TICAD has added weight and meaning both to the prize and to the health sector. This is in line with the importance that African Heads of State place on health as per their endorsement of the AFRICA HEALTH STRATEGY in 2007. This Africa Health Strategy brings out the fact that the huge burden of disease on Africa holds down Africa's development. Sick people miss many days of work and even if they go to work, they cannot be very productive. This revives the 1987 Resolution of African Heads of State that Health is the Foundation of Development. Gone is the misconception in the intervening years that health was a "consumer" rather a "development" sector. That misconception must be gone forever!
Secondly, Africa appreciates that Japan chose to identify the internationally outstanding work of Dr. Noguchi with Africa even though he worked in other continents as well. This encouraging decision by Japan towards Africa is also evident in the TICAD IV brochure which refers to Africa as the VIBRANT CONTINENT with opportunities. This is a stark contrast to the message of a leading international publication at the turn of the century (only a few years ago) that referred to Africa as, "The Hopeless Continent". We deeply appreciate that Japan communicates positive perceptions of Africa. We Africans desire that this be the case and are working hard to bring it about.
Thirdly, this prestigious HIDEYO NOGUCHI prize that focuses on almost immediate practical benefits from research and expansion of health services has addressed a lacuna left by the existing prestigious prizes in medicine. The nature of the focus of the existing prizes in medicine more or less rule out those working in Africa from getting these awards. It is no wonder that no one in Africa has won these awards. I appreciate that a niche with great importance to the improvement of the quality of life has been identified for those working in Africa on both Medical Research and on the expansion and improvement of Medical Services.
Finally, I am deeply honoured to be the 2008 NOGUCHI LAUREATE for Medical Services! I trust that these prizes will move beyond improving the quality of health in Africa towards building strong relationships between the people of Africa and the people of Japan.
Miriam Khamadi Were
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