The event is held under the high authority of Dr. Smaïla Ouedraogo, Minister of Health of Burkina Faso, with participants including Dr. Xavier Crespin, Director General of WAHO, Prof. Rasmane Semde, Director of the Directorate of Pharmacy, Medicine and Laboratories (DGPML), Alain Demaison, representing the French Embassy and Benoît Miribel, Director General of Fondation Mérieux.

For the second consecutive year, the RESAOLAB (Réseau d’Afrique de l’Ouest des Laboratoires d’Analyses Biomédicales, West African Network of Biomedical Analysis Laboratories) technical workshops are organized jointly with the WARDS regional workshop as the two programs deepen their collaboration. RESAOLAB’s activities, especially continuous training, are expanding to cover all of the ECOWAS countries through WARDS. This joint meeting between two public health initiatives will bring together the leaders of laboratory services in the 15 ECOWAS countries to discuss national and regional issues faced by biomedical laboratories and the development of harmonized laboratory policies at the regional level.

RESAOLAB workshops on important issues such as epidemiological surveillance, training and quality will aIso provide an overview of the latest advances made by the program.

The 15 ECOWAS countries are: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

About WARDS

The World Bank’s Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF) has provided funding of $10 million to support the deployment of the West African Regional Disease Surveillance (WARDS). The ECOWAS has contributed an additional $1.5 million for a total project budget of $11.5 million.

The project, which aims to improve disease surveillance and response in the 15 ECOWAS member states, launched its activities in March 2014 with the recruitment of a team of coordinators and the signature of contracts with six partners (WHO, Centre for International Cooperation in Health and Development (CCISD), University of Oslo, University of Ghana, CDC Foundation and Mérieux Foundation). WARDS seeks to establish, equip and ensure the functioning of 60 epidemiological surveillance centers.

Mérieux Foundation is coordinating the laboratory component and providing its expertise and technical support to improve the skills of laboratory professionals in all of the ECOWAS countries.

Contacts

RESAOLAB
Dr. Jean-Louis Machuron
Phone: +33 6 11 45 03 59
Email: Send an e-mail

WARDS
Josette El-Pellet Najjar
Phone: +33 6 60 38 73 20
Email: Send an e-mail

Presse
Koren Wolman-Tardy
Phone: +33 6 13 94 51 14
Email: Send an e-mail