Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) fosters a collaborative approach to public health. They partner with various implementing organizations like African Union bodies, regional health institutions, and NGOs. These partnerships allow Africa CDC to leverage their partners strengths. This collaborative approach helps Africa CDC effectively implement public health initiatives across the continent. African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) is one of the main implementing partners that Africa CDC works closely with.
ASLM is an independent, international, not-for-profit organisation founded in March 2011 in Addis Ababa that coordinates, galvanises and mobilises relevant stakeholders at the local, national, and international levels to improve local access to world-class diagnostic services and ensure healthy African communities now and for the long-term. ASLM is the first pan-African society for laboratory professionals, endorsed by the African Union (AU) and supported by multiple African Ministers of Health through its Ministerial Call for Action.
ASLM and APHF collaborated on a project that was implemented under a grant whose main focus was quality assurance of COVID-19 antigenic rapid diagnostic tests. This project was carried out in synergy with a similar project supported by Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL).
1. How would you describe the impact of the grants that APHF sub-granted to ASLM on ASLM’s overall mission and objectives?
Thanks to the grant funds, over ten countries in three African regions (West Africa, East Africa and Central Africa) benefitted from this capacity building and improved the quality of Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Testing (Ag RDT) at COVID-19 sites. It also strengthened the South-South collaborative approach to training and mentoring health ministry staff in the target countries.
Photo from ASLM: Resolve to Save Lives COVID-19 Training in Gabon
2. Can you share specific examples of successful initiatives or projects that were made possible through the grants sub-granted to ASLM?
• Training of trainers for Ag COVID-19 RDT diagnostic site evaluators. We had eight regional
master trainers certified.
• Structured assessment of 15 to 30 Ag RDT sites per country using the Stepwise Process for Improving the Quality of Rapid Testing for COVID-19 (SPI-RTCOV) checklist in various languages.
• Development of digitalized Stepwise Process for Improving the Quality of Rapid Testing (SPI-RT) tool to optimize the data gathering process and allow automated analysis.
• The implementation of corrective actions identified according to the gaps identified after the site assessments of the Ag COVID-19 RDT sites in nine countries.
3. Were there any challenges encountered during the implementation of projects funded by the grants received from APHF and how were they addressed?
We experienced delays in implementation of activities with initial slow response from Member States and/or low interest due to:
o Late designation of country focal point;
o Late or no response from the countries to resume activities;
o Competing activities at the same area;
o Duplication of activities across donors and technical partners;
o Security issues, civil unrest, military coups in several targeted countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Sao Tome and Principe.
We also had a limited number of ASLM trainers but we are now capitalizing on the certified evaluators during training and the highest achievers have been selected to strengthen the ASLM facilitators’ team, using a sustainable South to South training model. It now constitutes a pool of regional master trainers.
In addition, there were security issues to physically reach some labs especially in Cameroon and Burkina Faso. We had to organize remote assessments for some sites when it was possible.
4. What are the proposed solutions to curb the challenges mentioned above?
o We need to engage with Lab Directorate representatives.
o Improve capacity development by recruitment of new staff in addition to training of those already there.
o Ensure close communication with country local authorities and a focal person of the project through various communication channels like webinars, email, phone calls to maintain countries engagement;
o Leverage on the pool of regional trainers/mentors to support activities concurrently in different countries;
o Leverage on ASLM LabCop country teams as an entry point.
5. How have the grants contributed to building or strengthening ASLM’s capacity and capabilities?
Through the training of trainers on SPI-RT tool for Ag COVID-19 TDR diagnostic site assessment, a pool of 8 master trainers was setup at sub-regional level to support roll-out of assessors training (including ASLM staff). Those master trainers, internal and external contributed to the certification of 108 certified assessors, via ASLM academy, across the target countries.
As ASLM, we now have an availability of 116 competent and certified assessors in the ASLM academy. We also have data sets from 10 countries built via the ASLM digitalized SPI-RT tool.
Resolve to Save Lives COVID-19 Training in Ghana
6. Were there any unexpected outcomes or lessons learned from the projects funded by our grant?
The South-to-South training model used, which leverages on national trainers certified during previous phases of COVID-19 support to roll out trainings and assessments during this project, encouraged sharing of experiences and best practices across the regions, building expertise at the point of need and self-reliance in alignment with Africa CDC and AU strategic pillars as well as the Africa CDC regional integrated surveillance and network (RISLNET) initiative.
The regional facilitators were instrumental in rolling out training of SPI-RTCoV assessors during Q4 2022. Assessments and data analysis were completed by country Technical Working Group (TWG), to ensure ownership and aiming for sustainability.
Synergies with other projects and other partners in some countries (ie: WHO in Gabon) through co-funding of activities, helped to increase coverage for Ag RDT testing sites assessment.
