To establish the identity of The West Africa Global Health Alliance (WAGHA), the alliance will officially launch and unveil its new logo on Friday 7th April 2017 at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Senegal. The official launch will take place during the visit of Sir John Savill, Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council (MRC) United Kingdom to MRC Unit The Gambia and WAGHA partners in Senegal. The membership of the alliance was officially formed on Wednesday 5 October 2016, with a signed and approved Memorandum of Understanding by all members from the three member institutions which are; Medical Research Council UK (MRC UK), IRESSEF and Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD). The event took place at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop.

The alliance which is part of MRCG’s strategy to deepen its activities in the West African region, seeks to establish a regional hub for training and research from the three institutions; MRC UK, UCAD and IRESSEF to undertake complementary and synergistic work on global health.

The primary focus and objectives of the alliance are to:

• conduct research in global health, with particular attention to the regional priorities in West Africa;
• develop joint grant applications and their implementation;
• training and capacity building of researchers and necessary support staff;
• establish a secondment, visiting scientists and sabbatical scheme to exchange scientists;
• further the impact of research output through getting research into practice (GRIP);
• establish a platform to share available resources including but not limited to infrastructure and equipment; and
• undertake public engagement to promote science and the growth of biomedical research.

The formal launch of the alliance will be attended by the Senegalese Ministry of Higher Education and the Ministry of Health, Sir John Savill, MRC UK Chief Executive, Ambassadors of Great Britain and The Gambia in Senegal, the Rector, University of UCAD, the Directors and senior scientific staff of the three partner institutions, collaborators and the Senegalese media.