AUDA-NEPAD through the African Union Smart Safety Surveillance (AU-3S) programme hosted a technology support consultation in collaboration with the programme technical partner, Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).  The meeting was held in Cape Town, South Africa from the 7th to the 8th of March 2023. Representatives from the five member countries - Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – were in attendance.

The overarching goal of the consultation was to build a better understanding of the opportunities available for the optimization of appropriate technology for continued effective delivery of programme objectives. Additionally, this platform enabled member countries to share their experiences on vigilance systems for vaccines and medicine, highlighting relevant legislation, supporting systems and processes, data sharing requirements as well as system integration requirements. This provided a holistic idea of crucial data requirements in the countries whilst framing the feasible solutions to address gaps and to strengthen these systems.

“This face-to-face is valuable in understanding the needs and requirements of the member countries in detail. This exercise will be beneficial in scoping the expectations and will provide a better overview of what needs to be understood from the data to ensure that the future direction of the systems in place are fit for purpose” highlighted Mr. Phillip Tregunno, who is the current Safety Monitoring Director at the MHRA.

A key point that was raised by member countries is the difference in data requirements between the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPIs) and the National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs), and the need for the Vigilance Hub to enable flexibility to download relevant data. Generally, the consultation was characterized by active engagements between MHRA and AU-3S participating countries regarding identified technology-related areas for improvement in the current systems. The participants also discusses and analysed  technology support requests from participating countries to elicit a common understanding on fit-for-purpose solutions.

“We are trying to see to it that there is ownership of the process in terms of the national systems that countries have in place”, mentioned the AU-3S Senior Advisor, Prof. Aggrey Ambali. As part of the next steps, the summarized technology requests will be developed into a road map, which will be discussed during the AU-3S Steering Group meeting to be held on 29 – 30 March 2023. The expectation is that a final road map will be endorsed by the Steering Group for onward implementation.

To date, the AU-3S programme continues to work closely with the Member States to provide strategic and technical support with the aim of improving safety surveillance in the African context. While significant headway in supporting the Member States has been made to strengthen safety data collection and management systems, AUDA-NEPAD endeavours to provide a view of what is expected in the future through the AfriVigilance system so as to enable fit-for-purpose electronic safety data management systems.