The first annual meeting for the NIHR Global Health Research Group on Homelessness and Mental Health in Africa (HOPE) was held in Addis Ababa from the 13-14 March 2023. There were 32 representatives in attendance from the three project country sites, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana, and from partner organisations in the United Kingdom (KCL, University of Warwick, University of Nottingham, CBM Global and ImROC) and Nigeria (CBM International) as well as colleagues from the United States (George Washington University) joining via video link. Representatives of people with lived experience of mental health conditions and advocacy groups, and delegates from each partner country’s Ministry of Health also participated in the meeting.
We launched HOPE within Ethiopia with an open panel event on 14th March 2023, at which policy representatives from Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya, and a lived experience representative from Ghana outlined their experiences, lessons learned, priorities and recommendations for addressing the needs of people who are homeless and have severe mental health conditions. This event was attended by key stakeholders in Ethiopia.
Training courses were held in ethnography (9th to 11th March), safeguarding (15th March), and participatory action research (16th to 17th March) for participants before and after the main meeting. In all, more than 50 people participated in the training, a large proportion of whom had lived experience of mental health conditions and/or are early career researchers.
The meeting provided a great opportunity for everyone to meet in person and build momentum for the next phase of project work.
