The FDI African Strategy for Oral Health: addressing the specific needs of the continent

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

International Dental Journal 2013; 63: 113–120 doi: 10.1111/idj.12044

The FDI African Strategy for Oral Health: addressing the specific needs of the continent
Patrick Hescot1, Emile China2, Denis Bourgeois3, Susan Maina4, Orlando Monteiro da Silva1, Jean Luc Eisele1, Christopher Simpson1 and Virginie Horn1
1FDI World Dental Federation, Geneve, Switzerland; 2Association des Chirurgiens-Dentistes du Benin, Cadjeˆhoun,Cotonou, Benin; 3Faculte d’Odontologie, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon I, Lyon Cedex, France; 4Kenya Dental Association, Nairobi, Kenya.
The FDI World Dental Federation has defined a strategy for the development of oral health in Africa during the “African Summit” held in Cape Town, South Africa. The summit gathered presidents from 16 African National Dental Associa- tions, FDI stakeholders, the World Health Organisation and government delegates. The outcomes of this summit were stated in a Declaration, defining the functional principles of the African strategy as three priorities:
1. To establish and reinforce the credibility of NDAs
2. To acquire and develop leadership and management skills 3. Effective peer-to-peer exchange of information.
Key words: Oral health, Africa, strategy, leadership, declaration, national dental associations

FDI World Dental Federation is the global voice of the dental profession and diverse by nature; it reflects a wide range of needs and circumstances specific to individual regions and nations. Founded in 1900, its initial membership comprised a small group of mainly Western countries, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bel- gium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Den- mark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. It was not until later that countries of the African continent became members.
Oral health and dentistry in Africa have been afflicted by the problems characterising the world’s developing regions, such as poverty, malnutrition, high incidence of infectious diseases and child mortal- ity, lack of oral health policy and inadequate national budget for oral health. Nevertheless, there are future opportunities for development and strong economic growth. A number of areas have registered significant progress in their transition towards sustainable eco- nomic development. In some large cities, high quality dentistry is being offered through private practices. Dental schools are being built in various countries

and there is an expansion of public awareness pro- grammes on oral health such as the Live.Learn.Laugh (LLL) partnership between FDI and Unilever, now implemented in six African countries.
Of an estimated 80,000 health professionals involved totally or partially in oral health care, some 40,000 are dentists1, with an average ratio across the continent of 0.4 dentist to 10,000 inhabitants2; never- theless there are wide discrepancies: in Egypt, the ratio is 1:2,904; in Kenya it is 1:40,631 in Ethiopia, it is 1:1,278,446. There are also huge disparities in research, as illustrated by the number of publications on oral health from African institutions3.
FDI African members have, through the General Assembly and representatives at the Council, repeat- edly expressed the need for a special effort towards oral health in Africa. In 2004 (Nairobi) and in 2010 (Durban), FDI organised workshops to discuss global activities and supporting principles for an action plan in Africa4.
Within its overall commitment of ‘leading the world to optimal oral health’, FDI’s Vision 2020 has now set very clear goals both for the dental profession and for access to oral health care; these are as applicable