Members of “tropEd” - a network of institutions for higher education in international health – conducted their General Assembly (GA) meeting from June 9-to 11, 2022 for the first time in Tanzania – at the Ifakara Health Institute’s Training Center in Bagamoyo. Ifakara is an active tropEd member.

The GA was attended by Ifakara’s Dr. Kafuruki Shubis and Dr. Dickson Lwetoijera. From Europe, those in attendance were from Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), High Point University, Umeå universitet, ISGlobal University of Barcelona, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) of Munich and The Center for International Health (CIH LMU) Munich, with others following proceedings over the video conferencing platform, “Zoom”.

Executive Secretary of the tropEd, Mr. Guenter Froeschl, chaired the three-day meeting. To kick off the opening session, he highlighted the agendas for the meeting which included discussing the network and courses of international health submitted for accreditation.

During the meeting, the participants also reviewed feedback from working groups on 1) Scientific Session, 2) Teaching in times of COVID-19, 3) tropEd core courses and 4) Accreditation procedures and also reviewed the financial report before voting for the next tropEd Executive Secretary.

Dr. Honorati Masanja, Ifakara’s Chief Executive Director gave a keynote speech at the opening session of the meeting. “We are very happy to host you all and we are pleased to be part of this network which has enabled us to uplift our work of research, training and services,” he remarked.

While the team mentioned that it was their first-time visiting Tanzania, Dr. Masanja took the opportunity to encourage the participants to “take time off and visit this beautiful country” amid their extensive schedule.
The team also enjoyed a tour of Ifakara’s branch offices in Bagamoyo as well as various research facilities available there.