Author: Alex Kandie

24-27 November 2025 | Lagos, Nigeria

The Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative exists to strengthen Africa’s capacity for pandemic preparedness through evidence-driven decision-making, strong institutions, and learning systems that respond to context. This was a central message highlighted over four days of a workshop that recently took place in Lagos, Nigeria.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) leads from all seven EPSILON consortia met in Lagos for a four-day onboarding workshop aimed at strengthening alignment, sharpening shared understanding, and establishing a unified approach to monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning across the Collaborative.

Co-hosted by SHARPER and SPIL-OVA consortia based at the University of Ibadan and Redeemer’s University respectively, the workshop brought together programme managers, workstream leads, and partners from Mastercard Foundation, SFA Foundation, the Pandemic Sciences Institute and a representative from the Africa Oxford Initiative.

The importance of MEAL to the Collaborative

The University of Ibadan’s College of Medicine Provost, Professor Temidayo O. Ogundiran officially welcomed participants to Lagos and delivered the keynote address at the workshop. In his speech, he highlighted the significance of the MEAL function to the success of the Collaborative’s work.

“I am informed that this onboarding workshop has been carefully put together to strengthen all seven EPSILONs and to equip you with the necessary tools and frameworks to track progress, document results, and define learning, plus engage other stakeholders meaningfully. A robust MEAL system is needed to ensure that interventions are timely, decisions are evidenced correctly, progress is measured, and our impact is sustained – it should be rooted in transparency, excellence and shared commitment to deliver on the goals of the Collaborative”, Prof. Ogundiran remarked.

Carol Nuga, Director of Impact at the Mastercard Foundation, highlighted the evolution of the Foundation’s work – from individual scholarships to institutional strengthening, workforce development, and network-building to increase social capital to achieve our shared goals. She emphasised that MEAL is central to realising impact, influencing ecosystems, and ensuring young people benefit from dignified and fulfilling career pathways.

Building shared understanding and operationalisation of the MEAL Function

Over the four-day workshop, participants explored the structure of the Collaborative, the role of MEAL as a cross-cutting function, and the distinction between programme-level implementation by the EPSILONs and the overarching strategy led through wrap-around activities. Sessions reflecting on the Collaborative’s Theory of Change prompted deep discussion on accountability, influence, contextual differences and how MEAL can capture progress in real time.

The workshop also surfaced operational realities – from language diversity and bureaucratic constraints to the need for clear data responsibilities and integrated reporting systems. Demonstrations of the Collaborative’s MEAL tool helped teams understand how indicators, dashboards and learning inputs will be managed across institutions.

A panel on research-to-policy influence underscored the importance of trust, evidence synthesis, and science communication – key capabilities the Collaborative aims to strengthen across EPSILON teams. Additional sessions focused on impact storytelling, responsible communication, and the role of MEAL in shaping narratives of change.

Days three and four focused on translating principles into practice. Teams reviewed indicators at EPSILON and Collaborative levels, explored data flow and responsibilities, and discussed the MEAL tool that will support real-time reporting and learning.

By the final day, participants revisited the Collaborative’s Theory of Change with new clarity, refining their contributions and areas of influence. The workshop closed with a shared commitment to co-creation, continuous learning, and to building MEAL systems that reflect African contexts and strengthen pandemic readiness.

“This meeting has been engaging and packed with a lot of information. But most importantly, it has been useful in clarifying a lot of things, especially at the beginning of our work in the consortia, before activities kick-off and we need to change tack mid-way. I am grateful for this opportunity and go away with a better understanding of what lies ahead of us,” said Purity Wambui, a MEAL lead from the CLEAR-Africa consortium.

Looking Ahead

Across four days, one message rang consistently: this Collaborative is an opportunity to build something transformative – not only for institutions, but for African health systems, scientific ecosystems, and future generations of researchers and policymakers.

The MEAL onboarding workshop did more than align frameworks. It built trust. It clarified roles. It surfaced the complexity and promise of working across contexts, disciplines and expectations. And it reminded participants that the strength of the Collaborative lies in the people driving it.

“Having missed the inception meeting in Nairobi, I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this workshop. Before this, I was very confused about the whole Collaborative and how it works. I also had a limited scope to the objectives and goals of the programme. But now, I have a big picture view of what we are trying to do, and how everything fits in together,” said Dr Chinedu Ugwu, a co-lead from the SPIL-OVA consortium.

Together, the Collaborative is laying the groundwork for rigorous science, stronger systems, and evidence that genuinely shapes Africa’s readiness for future epidemics and pandemics.

Africa’s pandemic response efforts will remain incomplete without fully integrating social science into policy and planning. This was the central message from a recent webinar co-hosted by the Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative and the Kenya National Public Health Institute. 

Titled Integrating Social Science Evidence for Pandemics Policy Making, the webinar delved into continent-wide experiences of dealing with pandemics to understand how social science contributes to pandemic preparedness and response in practice.  

 Two social scientists, Teklu Cherkose (Armauer Hansen Research Institute) and Professor Kellen Kiambati (Karatina University), presented an arguement from their research and practise on why this shift is overdue – and how it can be achieved. 

 Mr Cherkose focused on COVID-19 response in Kenya and Ethiopia, highlighting the social sciences evidence behind specific policy interventions – including rapid household surveys that revealed income and food insecurity. Supported by theoretical framing, he outlined the relevance of social science evidence to pandemic policy: from understanding public behaviour and building trust to addressing inequalities worsened by pandemics and improving feedback loops. 

Mr Cherkose also identified existing gaps in the use of social sciences evidence, including the deployment of “ad hoc” and reactive measures. His recommendations to policy actors, researchers and funding partners also included advocacy for the institutionalisation of social science capacity.    

“National emergency management institutions should establish permanent, interdisciplinary units that brings social, behavioural and biomedical expertise together, not just during a crisis, but as critical parts of health systems planning. These units will ensure that social science and epidemiological evidence is combined in managing outbreaks from the start,” said Mr Cherkose.  

 Professor Kiambati reinforced these messages by drawing on practical experiences from her research working with communities. Like Mr Cherkose, she, too, highlighted institutionalisation as a strategy. Consolidating the use of trusted local structures for communications and engagement activities, she argued, will result in increased institutional capacity for social science evidence sharing and uptake. 

 While sharing strategies to address ‘murky’ policy making processes, Professor Kiambati emphasised the central role of co-creation between researchers and policy makers. She also positioned knowledge valorisation as a policy objective, creating practical value for the entire society. 

 The principles of co-creation, capacity strengthening and knowledge continuity highlighted by Mr Cherkose and Professor Kiambati reflect principles that underpin the Collaborative’s model. The Collaborative is designed to connect institutions, strengthen scientific ecosystems and ensure evidence flows seamlessly across borders and disciplines. This is how Africa builds long-term resilience. 

 The open invitation and attendance from institutions across Africa aligned with the Collaborative’s vision of promoting partnerships and collaborative exchanges across the continent. During and after the event, the speakers received multiple requests to connect and move conversations forward, demonstrating the potential of their work in contributing to a more robust research ecosystem across the continent. 

 Their shared recommendation, embedding social science expertise in health systems before crises hit, underscored a growing recognition across the continent that pandemic preparedness must be as much about people as pathogens. 

Watch the full webinar recording on YouTube via the link below:

About our Speakers 

Teklu Cherkose is a social science researcher and PhD fellow at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Ethiopia under DELTAS Africa II ALC consortium.  His work investigates how health interventions can be effectively integrated into communities.  Using a mixed methods approach, he examines the interplay of actors, interventions, and context by integrating patient, community, and stakeholder perspectives, ultimately aiming to shape effective and sustainable health policies. Mr Cherkose is also a grantee of the Africa Pandemic Sciences Collaborative’s Individual Policy Exchange Program (iPEP).  

Professor Kellen Kiambati is a social scientist from Kenya, specialising in pandemic response and community engagement. Her work turns research findings into practical action. Prof Kellen is an Associate Professor at Karatina University and an SFA Foundation grantee under the Possible Africa initiative.