Strengthening African partners resilience to possible epidemic risks

The Center was inaugurated in the presence of the Senegalese Minister of Health, Dr. Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye, the President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, Reeta Roy, the CEO of the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall and the European Union’s (EU) Ambassador to Senegal H.E. Mr Jean-Marc Pisani. 

This is a new training center, which is funded by the European Union’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centers of Excellence (EU CBRN CoE) – a EU global programme aimed at strengthening the stability and resilience to the CBRN risks.

Climate change threatens ecosystems and causes a sharp increase in emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Health risks have become an international concern. The new African Center for Epidemic Resilience will consolidate IPD's role as a regional centre of excellence for training in disease surveillance and epidemic preparedness and response. It will also train the next generation of key African players, who will acquire cutting-edge skills in data collection, analysis and modelling for the anticipation of future health threats.  

The IPD, thanks to receiving EU-funded equipment, including high-containment mobile laboratories, has been certified by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as a Center of Excellence in Biosafety and Biosecurity for the West African region. On the basis of CARE, the IPD will organise, in collaboration with Africa CDC, training and certification courses in biological risk analysis, biosafety cabinet management, biological waste management and other biosafety and biosecurity-related skills for all stakeholders in West African countries.