The ceremony was attended by Dr Aly Diop, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Social Development in Mali, representatives from the Ministry and project partners, including the Mérieux Foundation, the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office and DAI, as well as representatives of the One Health platform, community organizations and agents responsible for epidemiological surveillance and community-based monitoring in Mali.

On this occasion, Dr Aly Diop, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Social Development in Mali, underlined the fact that “the Department of Health and Social Development, in collaboration with the other partners, is committed to ensuring the sustainability of the achievements of this project and to backing the continuity of actions aiming to guarantee health security in Mali”.

The TDDA/ACE program for Tackling Deadly Disease in Africa has been introduced in six African countries and is funded by the British government through the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and managed by DAI Global Health. In Mali, the project was run by the Mérieux Foundation in partnership with the Ministry in charge of healthcare in Mali and the Mérieux Foundation USA. This project aimed to improve global health security by reducing epidemics and limiting their impact and other threats to public health in sub-Saharan Africa.

Set up in 2019, the project provided technical and financial assistance to strengthen health security in Mali. For example, it has helped to improve compliance with International Health Regulations (IHR) and the One Health approach, strengthen the capacities of civil society networks and decision-makers to use data for improving accountability, and strengthen data and surveillance systems, including at a community level.

Dr. Odile Ouwe Missi Oukem, Head of Mali and Niger at the Mérieux Foundation said, “For the past 8 years, the Mérieux Foundation has been supporting the Government of Mali in several health security programs to strengthen the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR). The next joint external evaluation of the main IHR capacities in Mali will allow us to objectively measure the impact of the TDDA/ACE technical assistance program which the Mérieux Foundation implemented in Mali. I am convinced that this impact will be significant”.

Within this framework, the TDDA/ACE project has actively supported the Mali government in its implementation of the One Health approach and in the development and implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS). The project has also helped to strengthen local capacities for epidemiological surveillance and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in health security and assisted with the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the IHR.