Strengthening leadership for better global health security: the Mérieux Foundation looked back on its experience as an implementing partner of the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP) in Guinea, Mali and Chad. To this end, a meeting between GLLP consortium members and implementing partners was held at Les Pensières Center for Global Health in Veyrier-du-Lac, France.

The two-day workshop brought together representatives of the GLLP consortium member institutions – the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), the US and EU Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) – and the organizations responsible for implementing the program in over 15 countries in the form of National or Inter-country Programs, including the Mérieux Foundation.

The discussions were an opportunity for the implementation partners to share their experience and observations of the program’s deployment in various countries, sharing a SWOT analysis for each program component, namely: 1) Training, 2) Mentoring, 3) Project, and 4) Community of Practice. They were also shown the updated version of the Learning Kit and the new GLLP package. On the agenda were discussions between the members on the roadmap, recognition mechanisms and monitoring and evaluation of the program currently under preparation.

The Mérieux Foundation, as a GLLP implementation partner in Guinea, Mali and Chad, with financial support from the Global Fund, was represented by Dr François-Xavier Babin, Director of International Operations, and Chloé Masetti, Project Manager. Their presentations highlighted the strengths and areas for improvement identified during deployment. They recognized the complementarity of having a team of national and international trainers, and the need for better training of trainers. In their view, the presence of participants, trainers and mentors from the animal, human and environmental health sectors is a prerequisite for the success of the One Health program.

The Mérieux Foundation is continuing to implement the GLLP program in the three countries where the second phase of the project is nearing completion. After attending several training modules, participants are now developing an individual project with the help of mentors, which they will present for evaluation at the program’s final phase, scheduled for the end of 2023.

About GLLP

The Global Laboratory Leadership Program, or GLLP, was developed by a consortium of six major international organizations with the aim of strengthening the decision-making capabilities of Laboratory Managers and those in charge with Ministries of Health in order to ensure quality services in laboratories and inspire processes of change and continuous improvement.

As part of its 2017-22 strategy, the Global Fund wanted to include GLLP and community mentoring among its strategies, in order to promote innovative initiatives to improve laboratory services. The Mérieux Foundation has been chosen to manage the program in Mali, Guinea and Chad.