The annual UNESCO-Merck Africa Research Summit (MARS) will be held in Accra, Ghana on 30th October, 2019 during the Merck Africa Asia Luminary conference.
“The Summit aims to contribute to building research capacity in African research community and discuss challenges, opportunities and proposed strategies to support health decision making that address Health and Sustainability challenges in low-and middle-income countries,” explains Dr. Rasha Kelej, chief executive officer of Merck Foundation and Chairperson of UNESCO-Mars.
“The end objective is to empower African young researchers and women researchers, advancing their research capacity and promote their contribution to STEM.”
The Summit will be hosted by UNESCO and Merck foundation in partnership with the African Union. Started in 2015, the UNESCO-MARS Summit is a networking platform for dialogue on improving global cooperation on health research and narrowing the disparities in health systems performance between developing and developed countries.
The UNESCO-MARS 2019 will host high level participants that include many African Ministers of Health, Science and Technology, Education, Information and Gender; and African researchers.
“This high-level roundtable meeting will also provide networking opportunities to strengthen the research community and their impact on African society and media communication” concluded Dr. Rasha Kelej.