Dr. Ana Mocumbi Touts Integration at Global Diabetes Event

Dr. Ana Mocumbi, co-chair of the NCDI Poverty Network, and Tinotenda Dzikiti, a global diabetes advocate based in Zimbabwe and a member of the Network’s Voices for PEN-Plus program, joined forces at the recent “Type 1 Diabetes: Advancing a Global Road Map for Improved and Integrated Care in Low-Resource Settings” conference in Copenhagen.

Dr. Ana Mocumbi, co-chair of the NCDI Poverty Network, highlighted partnerships and integration as a panelist during an international diabetes event earlier this month in Copenhagen. 

Dr. Mocumbi was one of more than 100 international leaders at the Feb. 4-6 event, titled “Type 1 Diabetes: Advancing a Global Road Map for Improved and Integrated Care in Low-Resource Settings.” Co-hosts of the event included the World Diabetes Foundation, the University of Geneva, the East African Diabetes Study Group, and the Danish Diabetes and Endocrine Academy. The goal was to discuss solutions and challenges facing type 1 diabetes care in lower- and middle-income countries. 

“As a panelist, my role was to highlight and showcase the NCDI Poverty Network’s experience in partnerships,” Dr. Mocumbi said. “I tried to address partnerships at different levels—global, national, and local—with partners who support PEN-Plus implementation in Mozambique. I also highlighted the bridges we’re building to close gaps in the provision of care for type 1 diabetes.”

Her panel also included James Reid, program officer for the type 1 diabetes program at the Helmsley Charitable Trust, a major funder of the NCDI Poverty Network.

Tinotenda Dzikiti, a global diabetes advocate based in Zimbabwe and a member of the Network’s Voices for PEN-Plus advocacy program, attended the event and wrote extensively about the experience on his personal blog, “The Diabetic Mogul.” 

“The meeting brought together people living with T1D, early-career and seasoned researchers, and policymakers at the forefront of diabetes care across different regions,” wrote Dzikiti, who lives with type 1 diabetes. “People with diabetes were included in most sessions of the meeting. While we’d like to think that clinicians and researchers don’t need constant reminders that there are people behind the statistics and data, it never hurts to put a human face and lived experience front and centre. These perspectives reinforce how diabetes impacts real lives, beyond the numbers.”

Dzikiti said the event went a long way toward conveying the power of community involvement, and ensuring attendees “recognized the urgent need for meaningful engagement of people with diabetes to improve health outcomes.”

Dr. Mocumbi said the integration of diabetes care into health systems in lower- and middle-income countries was a theme throughout the event.  

“The idea was to bring together the whole community working on diabetes, through different stakeholders at different levels of the global action plan,” she said. “It was an interesting meeting, and I think the main idea the organizers wanted to convey was that we need to integrate efforts.”

Dr. Ana Mocumbi, co-chair of the NCDI Poverty Network, joins with collaborators Dr. Catherine Karekezi, PEN-Plus implementer for NCD Alliance Kenya, and James Reid, program officer for the type 1 diabetes program at the Helmsley Charitable Trust.