The workshop brought together over 30 participants from across West Africa, represented MRCG at LSHTM, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Research Centre for Global Health, and Margan Clinical Research Organization (MMARCRO). The event aimed to harmonise and benchmark site visit reports and develop robust capacity building plans that address the needs and gaps identified in promising sites.

Professor Ed Clarke, Vaccines and Immunity Theme Lead, MRCG at LSHTM, said: "This workshop is a critical step in ARC-WA’s and CEPI’s collective efforts to combat emerging infectious diseases, particularly Lassa fever, which continues to pose a significant public health threat in parts of West Africa. Our work with CEPI and our colleagues at IVI reflects a shared commitment to addressing global health challenges through research excellence and preparedness." 

According to Dr Asma Binte Aziz, a Research Scientist at IVI, this workshop is key in facilitating a review of the work being done by various teams under the project and ensuring enhanced coordination. 

Armel Zemsi, Head of the Clinical Trials Unit at MRCG at LSHTM stated that “building clinical trials capacity is a key step in enabling the West African region to effectively respond to outbreaks.” 

He added that “this workshop served as a platform to consolidate the reports generated from extensively assessing existing clinical trials capacity in Lassa fever endemic countries, and to develop robust capacity building plans tailored to the needs of the sites and the region. The goal is to transform promising sites into centers that can conduct GCP-compliant trials and effectively contribute to Real World Evidence Generation.”

By bringing together the ARC-WA team, the workshop helped to broaden the perspective of project stakeholders encouraging them to think beyond the immediate focus on site assessments, towards developing plans to create more sustainable, disease- and developer-agnostic capacities for clinical research. It also provided an opportunity to discuss solutions to boost coordination and capacity among key national and regional stakeholders involved in epidemic response in the sub-region. 

Mohammed Yisa, a Research Clinician under MRCG at LSHTM’s Vaccines and Immunity theme, highlighted the significance of CEPI's ARC-WA project: "Given that Africa hosts under 4% of global clinical trials, this initiative is timely. We anticipate that it will build the capacity of West African sites to design and execute trials relevant to the region's unique health challenges," he concluded.

The workshop wrapped up with concrete deliverables, including a harmonised site assessment framework, a roadmap for capacity building initiatives across 6 West African countries, and the establishment of a quarterly coordination mechanism among participating organizations. These outcomes represent significant progress toward the project's goal of strengthening pandemic preparedness infrastructure in West Africa.