TRRU Workshop: North-South

  

    

 TRRU Workshop: North-South Workshop for an African Decision -Making Framework for Vaccines

   

 

A workshop to develop an African Decision-Making Framework in anticipation of the introduction of the Meningococcal Group A conjugate vaccine in sub-Saharan Africa

 

 

February 23rd - March 2nd, 2009 

Location: Ouagadouga and Nouna, Burkina Faso, Africa

 

Principal Investigators

  • Dr. Ali Sié, Director, Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna (CRSN), Nouna (Burkina Faso)

  • Dr. Janice Graham, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada


Workshop Objectives


Our multidisciplinary, multi-sited collaborative research team proposes to perform an independent evaluation of the implementation strategy and decision making of the mass vaccination program aimed at interrupting annual outbreaks of Group A Neisseria meningitides that have affected more than 700,000 and killed more than 100,000 Africans over the past decade.


We plan to exchange knowledge between Canadian and Burkino Faso researchers, and to create a scientist/researcher network to examine the issues associated with the new vaccine introduction. Our first scientific meeting will engage multiple stakeholders by inviting a variety of participant who will come from Canadian and Burkina Faso universities, research centres, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and health policy decision-makers.


Our aim for this workshop is to discuss and define a proposed study to develop an evidence-based, contextually-sensitive and flexible decision-making framework, derived from local ecological knowledge, that can be used by national immunization and health authorities planning and prioritizing health interventions in the global south.


To this extent we will:

 

1. Invite researchers from Canada and Burkina Faso to exchange knowledge about current research and recent vaccine and immunization surveillance and discovery.

 

2. Conduct a multidisciplinary workshop (Atelier) to facilitate intensive knowledge exchange and translation associated with the new conjugate meningitis vaccine introduction in Burkina Faso. Workshop participants will then use these findings to develop the study design and methods to independently assess the mass vaccination program. A follow-up workshop will be held in Canada with participants from Burkina Faso in April, 2009 to finalize the research protocol.

 

3. Edit and disseminate the workshop proceedings in order to optimize knowledge transfer.

 

 

Workshop background

 

 

 

Funded by:   Canadian Institute of Health Research