By Ojoma Akor
The Africa CDC, the government of Nigeria, and other member states have reaffirmed their commitment to creating a harmonized, coordinated public health emergency preparedness and response platform across West Africa.
They expressed this commitment during the West Africa Regional Review and Coordination Meeting (RCC), organized by Africa CDC in partnership with other organizations. The meeting’s theme was ‘Strengthening Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Capacities in West Africa.’
Nigeria’s Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, stated, “I wish to reaffirm Nigeria’s unwavering commitment to advancing health security in West Africa. No Member State can stand alone. Our strength lies in shared surveillance, shared information, shared expertise, shared responsibility.”
He urged all West African nations to maintain unity, strengthen coordination frameworks, and deepen technical collaboration.
Dr. Salako highlighted Nigeria’s strong support for the Africa CDC’s Five-Pillar Health Security Agenda, the African Epidemic Fund (AfEF), the ongoing development of the Regional Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC) Coordination Platform, and the broader goal of an Africa that leads its own health priorities and influences global health governance reforms.
He mentioned that the meeting aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s health-sector transformation agenda, as Nigeria’s health reform priorities echo the goals that Africa CDC and ECOWAS are promoting across the region.
This includes enhancing emergency preparedness and response, modernizing public health intelligence and surveillance, expanding laboratory and diagnostic capacity, promoting local manufacturing, and asserting health security sovereignty, among other initiatives.
He emphasized that recent crises remind everyone that the region’s health security depends on how well we prepare before the next emergency.
He urged, “Let us therefore strengthen solidarity, reduce fragmentation, coordinate as one region, and protect our 355 million citizens with systems that are strong, united, and sustainable.”
The minister also praised Dr. Alinon Kokou for completing a significant year in office, noting his leadership and active engagement with 14 out of 15 Member States as evidence of a new era of responsive, respectful, and inclusive regional cooperation.
He added, “Hosting this first annual review meeting under your leadership marks an important milestone for the region, and Nigeria is proud to host this gathering.”
Dr. Alinon Kokou, Regional Director of Africa CDC’s West Africa Regional Coordinating Centre (RCC), stated that the region continues to face outbreaks, disasters, and health threats that challenge our systems daily.
“But we have proven, time and time again, that collaboration is our greatest strength. The work we do here is not administrative; it is lifesaving. It is about ensuring that the 355 million people of West Africa can live healthier, safer, and more dignified lives,” he said.
He explained that national directors of laboratory services, surveillance, and emergency operations centers (EOCs) from all 15 West African Member States, along with public health leaders, discussed their achievements, shared their vision, and planned activities for 2026.
While thanking Nigeria for supporting the RCC, he mentioned that during the four-day meeting, member states would present progress reports on their national public health institutes.
Dr. Kokou said that, at the end of the meeting, member states and stakeholders will identify priorities for West Africa in 2026 and learn from each other.
Framework for coordinated regional emergency response platform
He highlighted that his center is developing a framework for a coordinated regional emergency response platform.
“So our center is mainly focused on coordination, and this is one of our core functions: emergency preparedness and response, and disease control and prevention. So the center is bringing all the member states together to share best practices and push for alignment on preparedness and response,” he explained.
He anticipates that the implementation of this framework will begin in the first quarter of next year.
Ms. Muriel Mafico of UNFPA emphasized the importance of the meeting, particularly because it focuses on health-sector preparedness and lessons learned from past epidemics.
She said investing in preparedness will help the region save money, save lives, and facilitate timely responses.
She stressed that national and regional leadership is essential for preparedness and highlighted the importance of domestic financing, stating, “We need resources that will be invested in preparedness in the region.”
She added, “The third key is collaboration across the region. It’s important to ensure strong collaboration. And that we are seeing today, with ministers from different countries present. The last point we are emphasizing is information. There is a need for data to inform our preparedness, resource allocation, and capacity building. Those are the key messages we are bringing from UNFPA, and we also stand ready with all the countries in the region. We have a presence in all these countries, and we are ready to support the vision of investing in human security.”
Dr. Yusupha Touray, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Health in The Gambia and chair of RETAC Western Region, remarked that the meeting’s theme is fitting, given the need to strengthen health systems across the region based on past experiences.
“Even though Africa has the best brains, we suffered when we wanted vaccines, and we have been facing pandemics and outbreaks across the region, sometimes struggling to contain them. We struggle to keep them in check. Yet we have the best brains, you know, across the region, to control these things. So bringing Africa CDC, member states in the region, together to discuss issues relating to that, is the right thing to do,” he said.
He concluded that stronger collaboration among countries within the region would help pool resources and improve efforts to address these challenges.
