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MASCOT meeting in Costa Rica

By Ana Ribeiro

20 March 2012

The IHCAI (Fundación Instituto Centroamericano de Salud Internacional) hosted the country experts training workshop and the consortium meeting of the MASCOT project.

MASCOT – Multilateral Association for Studying Health inequalities and enhancing North-South and South-South Cooperation – is an international project funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) for Research and Technological Development, which gathers partners and experts from Africa, Latin America and Europe, to identify and implement strategies for tackling health inequalities preferentially affecting children, adolescents and mothers.

The workshop took place on the 12th, 13th and 14th March and gathered experts from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Europe (France, Portugal, Switzerland, the United Kingdom), Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, South Africa and Tunisia. These researchers and health experts analysed the methodologies and tools that will be used to develop specific national reports to describe National Health Research Systems and inequalities concerning Maternal and Child Health.

On Wednesday, the 14th March, the group of experts and project partners was received by the Minister of Health of Costa Rica, Dr. Daisy Corrales, who reinforced her support to the project. She explained the current discussion and improvement process of the Costa Rica health system, and stressed the importance of international collaboration in the health sector (namely through MASCOT project) to foster the exchange of best practices and achieve progresses in the tackling of health inequalities.

The next workshop and meeting of MASCOT project will take place in South Africa, in October 2012. In this event, country experts will present the first results of the work conducted and will define next steps for the project. The MASCOT project will be further presented and promoted in relevant health events in Costa Rica and other countries in the next months. Detailed information will soon be available on the project website:www.mascotfp7.eu