SPICES is an acronym for Scaling-up Packages of Interventions for Cardiovascular disease prevention in selected sites in Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa. It is an implementation science project funded by the European Commission through the Horizon2020 research and innovation action. SPICES officially started on the 1st January 2017 and will run till December 2021. The SPICES consortium comprise of six (6) Universities; Makerere University, University of Antwerp, Nottingham Trent University, Manchester University, Brest University and Limpopo University. The project aim is to implement and evaluate a comprehensive CVD prevention program in five settings: a rural & semi-urban community in a low-income country (Uganda), middle income (South Africa) and vulnerable groups in three high-income countries (Belgium, France and United Kingdom).
From 12th – 15th March 2018, Makerere University School of Public Health (MaKSPH), successfully hosted the SPICES consortium in Kampala. The meeting was opened by the Dean who welcomed the consortium members to the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences and wished the team a successful deliberation.
The meeting deliberated on the country specific plans on the first day and the second day followed with two seminars. The first seminar was facilitated by Prof David Serwadda on task sharing and shifting in HIV programming at the community and health facility levels. The second seminar “Engaging stakeholders in implementation research and; How can “Learning by doing” help to improve the delivery of health services, and reach poor and marginalized people – Experiences form the future health systems research group” was co-presented and facilitated by Dr. Elizabeth Ekirapa and Mr. Moses Tetui, both from MakSPH. On the third day, the team crowned it off with a field visit to the Ugandan study sites – Mukono and Buikwe to gain insights into the healthcare delivery system for CVD prevention in Uganda.
