The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has called for stronger community engagement, behavioural intelligence and coordinated health systems across Africa to improve the continent’s preparedness and response to disease outbreaks.

Speaking during the Continental Behavioural Intelligence and Infodemic Management (BIIM) Harmonisation Workshop in Mombasa, Dr Lul Pout Riek, Africa CDC Senior Regional Representative, said the meeting was significant as African countries seek to establish a common framework for behavioural intelligence and strengthen health security across the continent.

“This meeting is extremely significant. Kenya was chosen because it has been showing leadership,” Dr Riek said.

He said the meeting was focused on harmonising a common framework for behavioural intelligence as part of Africa CDC’s broader efforts to implement the continent’s health security vision.

“Africa CDC is implementing the Africa health security vision, a framework on strengthening health security in the continent,” he said.

Dr Riek stressed that communities must remain at the centre of Africa’s health systems, particularly when responding to disease outbreaks.

“The health systems need the community. We cannot leave communities behind when responding to outbreaks,” he said.

He added that African countries must also take advantage of available technology to strengthen health surveillance, communication and response mechanisms.

“We also need to use the technology that is available,” he said.

Dr Riek further called for greater investment in Africa’s capacity to produce vaccines and medicines, saying the continent cannot achieve a strong and sustainable health system without strengthening local manufacturing.

“We cannot have a health system for Africa unless Africa has its own availability to produce vaccines and medicines,” he said.

He said listening to communities would be critical in building effective health systems and restoring public confidence.

“We don’t want to leave the community behind. We need to listen to the community,” Dr Riek said.

According to him, the proposed behavioural intelligence framework will help countries coordinate their responses to health challenges and ensure that community concerns are incorporated into decision-making.

“This framework will empower the countries in ensuring they are well coordinated in handling health issues,” he said.

The workshop brings together representatives from Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Mauritania, alongside health experts and partners, to strengthen Africa’s approach to behavioural intelligence, misinformation and community feedback in public health.

Kenya: Tackling perceptions and misinformation

Representing the Principal Secretary for Public Health, Dr Joseph Kamario said the meeting was aimed at developing a proper mechanism for behavioural intelligence that would support universal health care across member states.

“We are here as delegates from different countries to see how we can come up with a proper mechanism to deal with behavioural intelligence, which will go a long way in supporting universal health care for all member states,” Kamario said.

He noted that perceptions within communities can influence how health issues are understood and addressed, making reliable data and information critical in public health decision-making.

“You will find that there are a lot of perceptions which, in terms, affect how we deal with health issues,” he said.

Kamario said the countries were seeking to develop mechanisms for collecting the right data and information to help address concerns raised by communities, particularly during outbreaks and other health emergencies.

“We are focusing on outbreaks and health security,” he said.

He identified public trust as one of the major challenges facing behavioural intelligence initiatives.

“The main challenge with behavioural intelligence is public trust and this is what we want to address,” Kamario said.

He said effective behavioural intelligence would help governments build informed communities and counter misinformation.

“We want to have a community that is well informed, with no perceptions or misinformation,” he said.

Ghana: Learning from COVID-19

Bridget Anim, Deputy Director in charge of Health Communication in Ghana, said the country’s participation in the workshop was important in strengthening how health authorities understand and respond to community concerns.

“For us in Ghana, this is very important for us to be involved in this conference,” Anim said.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic and other outbreaks had exposed gaps in the way community insights and concerns were captured and incorporated into health responses.

“We have seen over the course of COVID and other outbreaks that the insights and concerns from the community were something that we were missing,” she said.

Anim said Ghana was now seeking to address those gaps by strengthening the collection and use of community feedback.

“Now we want to address these concerns and deal with them,” she said.

She added that the meeting had also provided participating countries with an opportunity to learn from each other and share experiences in dealing with public health challenges.

“Participating in this meeting has also made us learn how other countries have been dealing with their issues,” she said.

Anim identified data, accurate information and security as critical elements in strengthening public health systems.

Sierra Leone: Towards a continental system

Meanwhile, Harold Thomas, Health Promotion and Communication Adviser from Sierra Leone, said countries were working towards developing a system that could eventually be rolled out across other African states with support from Africa CDC.

“We are trying to make this particular system work and at the end roll out to other member states through support of Africa CDC,” Thomas said.

He acknowledged that countries already have their own systems for dealing with health information and community engagement but said these systems need to be interoperable.

“Each country has its own system, but these systems should be able to work together,” he said.

Thomas also highlighted the importance of adopting a One Health approach, which brings together human, animal and environmental health.

“What we want to do is to bring on board One Health — human health, environmental and animal health,” he said.

He said the ultimate goal was to ensure that the behavioural intelligence system could be adopted across member states and contribute to a more coordinated continental response to health threats.

“We want to make sure that this system rolls out to other member states,” Thomas said.

The Mombasa workshop is therefore expected to contribute to efforts to establish a harmonised continental approach to behavioural intelligence and infodemic management, ensuring that community voices, reliable information, technology and public trust are incorporated into Africa’s health security agenda.