1st ErgoAfrica Conference
13th to 15th September, 2017
Report by Andrew Todd
The 1st ErgoAfrica conference was hosted on by the Ergonomics Society of South Africa (ESSA) in conjunction with the 3rd African Symposium on Human Factor and Aviation Safety and the 13th ESSA conference. The conference theme was “From reactive to proactive in safety and human factor.”
There were 206 participants, including delegates from at least 10 different countries. Keynote speakers were Prof. Paul Salmon and Prof. Peter Hancock. Other distinguished speakers were Dr. Sara Albolino and Dr. Giulia Dagliana from the Società Italiana di Ergonomia (SIE).
A workshop on patient safety and clinical risk management was facilitated by Drs. Albolino and Dagliana from the Center for Clinical Risk Management and Patient Safety of the Tuscany Region, WHO collaborating center. An additional workshop on the IEA General Framework Model for the development of Ergonomics and Human Factor in Africa was facilitated by Prof. Benchekroun and Andrew Todd with participation from South Africa, Nigeria, Botswana, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. Professor Benchekroun from CNAM, France, also facilitated a workshop on Ergonomics training in Africa: What are the needs and opportunities?
Highlights and notable achievements included:
(1) A MoU with the WHO collaborating center on clinical risk management and patient safety and ErgoAfrica for the development of Ergonomics in health care in Africa.
(2) Schedule and work plan for draft document on human factor and ergonomics training in Africa for presentation at IEA 2018 in Florence.
(3) Election of new ErgoAfrica board for 2017-2019 with the election of Taoufik Khalfallah as president.
The first ErgoAfrica conference hosted by the Ergonomics Society of South Africa was a success with many fruitful discussions and outcomes. We were very pleased with the progress that was made.
The future plans are outlined in the outcomes and include a plan for the ErgoAfrica network to work more closely with other African countries with the election of representatives from other countries to work with ErgoAfrica to develop the profession in their own countries. This includes countries such as Botswana, Algeria and Morocco. This is an important step forward in realizing the IEA President’s vision of how IEA networks can work with the IEA for the development of HFE.
Outgoing ErgoAfrica president, Andrew Todd, handing over to the new president Taoufik Khalfallah.
Some of the ErgoAfrica delegates from Morocco, Botswana, Algeria, Tunisia and South Africa. Here they are together with the facilitators of the Health care workshop run by the WHO collaborating center in human factor and ergonomics and communication for the delivery of safe and quality care.
