From 14th to 15th April, 2022, the Nouna Health Research Center (CRSN), Health Tech Platform’s partner in Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the Institute for Research in Health Sciences (IRSS), organised an information workshop for journalists in Bobo-Dioulasso. The broad objective was to enhance journalists’ understanding of emerging health technologies, with a focus on gene drive mosquito technology.
The two-day workshop was part of implementation activities of the Platform for Dialogue and Action on Health Technologies in Africa (Health Tech Platform), implemented by the African Institute for Development Policy (AFIDEP) in Sub Saharan Africa with a particular focus on Burkina Faso and Uganda. Dr Ali Sié, Director of CRSN and leader of the implementation team in Burkina Faso, explains the objectives of the Health Tech Platform.
“Promoting informed, objective, open and balanced discussions on the development and use of emerging transformative tools and technologies to address health challenges in Africa is the objective of the Health Tech Platform.” He added that the approach to achieving this objective is to involve several stakeholders, including the media, in the project implementation. Dr Sié said the meeting with media professionals was therefore to interact with them so they could better inform the public about the project.
The workshop was also an avenue to explain the vision, mission and objectives of the Health Tech Platform as well as discuss issues on biosafety regulations with media professionals from Bobo-Dioulasso, Ouagadougou, Dédougou, Ouahigouya, Banfora and Koudougou. The Health Tech Platform envisions an Africa where cutting-edge technology is used to tackle health challenges. Its mission is to promote evidence-informed dialogue and action on health technologies in Africa.
Dr Charlemagne Tapsoba, Project Officer, explains the role the African Union has played and continues to play in promoting the development and use of transformative and emerging technologies.
“The African Union’s development road map, Agenda 2063, recognises the critical role of technology as a catalyst for growth on the continent. However, if emerging technologies do not get a chance to be well designed and developed with meaningful inputs from Africans and piloted or deployed full-scale where proven safe and efficacious, then their potential for changing the disease trajectory on the continent will remain untapped.”
Health Tech partnering with Target Malaria
The Health Tech Platform is working in partnership with Target Malaria in the fight against malaria in Africa. The work of both organisations was explained at the workshop to give participants a full understanding of the kind of partnerships that exists between the two.
With the objective to eradicate malaria in Africa, Target Malaria is a non-profit research consortium that aims to develop and share new, sustainable and genetic technologies aimed at genetically modifying mosquitoes to reduce the transmission of malaria that is severely rife in Burkina Faso. Explaining how endemic malaria is in Africa and specifically in Burkina Faso, Dr Abdoulaye Diabaté, Principal Investigator of Target Malaria said: “Today, Burkina Faso is one of the five countries most affected by malaria in the world.”
Dr Abdoulaye Diabaté, principal investigator of the Target Malaria project / Photo: Ouest-info.net
He attributed this to the fact that conventional vector control tools, namely treated mosquito nets, insecticides and indoor spraying have reached their fundamental protective limit. “In line with its mandate, Target Malaria has completed the first phase of its project embarked on, with the release of 10,000 mosquitoes in several villages,” he added.
The workshop provided the opportunity for journalists to learn more about Target Malaria and its activities, as well as helped to identify their needs in terms of knowledge gaps and evidence on emerging health technologies.
On their part, the journalists expressed satisfaction with the workshop and pledged their commitments to publishing stories that would inform the public on emerging health technologies. The activities were rounded up with a visit to Bana, a village in South-West of Burkina Faso, where participants gained some practical knowledge on the release of genetically modified mosquitoes that took place in 2019.
This article was originally posted in French on ouest-info.net.