Final Reflection

After preliminary research and exploration of our topic, my research partner and I are extremely excited and optimistic about our project this summer. Initially, our broad prompt gave us some difficulties on where to focus and how in depth to go in certain areas and not in others. Our prompt from the Zambia Governance Foundation includes the topics of environment, gender, corruption, and health accountability, all within the context of asset based community development. After my research partner and I confirmed that our our interests are most aligned with the topic of health accountability, and it gave us a more specific avenue of research, we decided to pursue some preliminary formative research on some of Zambia’s largest public health issues such as infant mortality, maternal mortality, HIV, anemia, and Malaria. All of these maladies are a major burden on the Zambian people, and this is an issue that we truly feel that we can be passionately involved in.

From our initial research, we have seen that the Zambian government is struggling to provide adequate healthcare to their people, although they are improving on some fronts. One particularly concerning figure is that, according to the WHO, Zambia’s infant mortality rate is about 50% higher than the international average, indicating there is much to be done on this front. My research partner and I see our role being that of analyzing government public health policy within the context of asset based community development, taking into account the distribution of resources and the implementation of policy to see its efficacy versus effectiveness. The frame of ABCD is something that can be extremely applicable to health accountability, as the Zambian government does not have unlimited resources to dedicate to public health, and much of what Zambia can improve upon is simply education and giving people the knowledge to help themselves and their community. This is exactly what ABCD does, and with the backing of ZGF my research partner and I are confident that this is a great framework for a research project, especially with our limited resources. We are also hoping to use countries in the region that have had successful public health policy as an example, such as Botswana which has markedly reduced their malaria rate over the last decade. Additional resources we will explore upon arrival in the country is contact with the Lusaka offices of the World Health Organization, World Bank and UNICEF for more access to current data, as well as seeing what research projects are ongoing. This, in addition to further research of what literature already exists, and the guidance of our in country contact will allow us to hit the ground running when we arrive in country. We also, however, are not completely committed to health accountability, as information given to us by our ZGF contact, Likumbi, could change our course. Regardless, we are hopeful that our initial research will prepare us to be better informed upon our arrival, and I am confident that Tiffany and I will be proactive and form a successful research project.

Thinking back on my initial goals for this program, I feel that I have come a long way in having a greater context and understanding of Zambia. The weekly seminar has been a consistent source of information about the country, region, and what it means to be a foreigner doing public health research abroad. It has been a constant reminder of what I will be doing this summer, and has kept the trip at the forefront of my thoughts all semester. Many of my goals, such as achieving a better understanding for Zambian culture, have not changed and cannot be achieved until arrival in the country, but now that I am more educated about the topics I will be facing I feel that my scope has narrowed.

I am still very excited about the prospect of shadowing in the hospital and starting my research project, and the seminar has equipped me to be more prepared for these challenges. As the semester wraps up, my focus has further shifted from schoolwork to my research project, and my partner and I will continue to educate ourselves about Zambian and our research organization all the way up until departure. Southern Africa has always seemed like a region that is very distant and foreign to me, and, despite never having been there, I already feel that I am much more knowledgeable about it and the public health challenges it faces. I have thoroughly enjoyed the seminar this semester and I feel like we have a great group of students, and I can’t wait to get to Lusaka!