LAMRN CONFERENCE 2015

The 1st International Conference of the LAMRN dedicated to midwifery research took place on 09th to 13th March 2015 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The aim of the conference was to create a platform for all researchers and early career researchers in midwifery to share research findings and recommendations with other midwives, health care practitioners and health partners.

For the past two years, the LAMRN Project has been supporting twenty midwives in each of the six countries to conduct research in key midwifery areas. The conference was taken as an excellent event for these midwives present their research findings and to graduate as midwifery researchers.

The event was initially planned to take place in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2015 but was later changed to take place in Tanzania in March 2015 following the travel advisories that affected Kenya in the 2nd quarter of 2014.

The conference was organised and hosted courtesy of LAMRN, University of Manchester, THET (Partnership for Global Health), Johnson & Johnson and Stand Up for African Mothers (by AMREF Health Africa). The Steering committee comprised of the LAMRN HQ Team (Kenya office), University of Manchester Technical Support Team and backed by all six Focal Leads each from the six LAMRN member countries (Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Tanzania and Kenya).

The Conference attracted 103 delegates on the pre-conference workshops on 09th and 10th, 153 delegates on the 1st Main conference day (11th) and 151 delegates on the 2nd day of the main conference (12th). Delegates were drawn from the six LAMRN countries plus Sudan, Namibia, UK and Sweden.

The Opening ceremony was hosted by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Tanzania and officiated by H. E. The First Lady of Tanzania in the presence of the Health Minister, the Principal Secretary of Health and the Vice President of International Confederation of Midwives (ICM).

The conference comprised of the following events: The pre-conference workshop (9th & 10th), the Opening Ceremony (11th morning), the conference sessions both plenaries and parallel sessions (11th & 12th), the Closing ceremony (12th afternoon) and the Gala Dinner with Graduation Ceremony (12th evening)

All the events took place at the Kunduchi Beach Hotel and Resort along the Mtongani Beach in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.