Prioritisation and risk-ranking of epidemic-prone diseases in Western and Central African Regional Coordination Centres
Regional workshops were held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (24−26 June 2025) and Yaoundé, Cameroon (8−10 July 2025), focusing on the prioritisation of epidemic-prone diseases for emergency preparedness and response in Western and Central Africa.
The two regional workshops in Abidjan and Yaoundé, which were jointly organised by the Africa Centres for Disease Prevention and Control (Africa CDC) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), were part of a wider series of activities being carried out since 2022 to strengthen regional capacities in preparedness and response planning.
Participants from Western and Central African Union Member States, regional coordination centres, and partner organisations (World Health Organization, the Economic Community of West African States’ Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control, the Organization of Coordination for the Fight against Endemic Diseases in Central Africa and the Economic Community of Central African States) took part in structured exercises to identify high-priority diseases based on public health relevance and regional preparedness levels. The Africa CDC risk-ranking methodology is based on ECDC’s approach, incorporating multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and the Delphi methodology.
Following collaborative discussions, participants reached a consensus on a set of priority diseases and shared valuable feedback to improve both the criteria and the process. The outcomes will inform region-specific preparedness planning.
In addition to their technical objectives, the workshops helped reinforce cross-country collaboration and provided a platform for continued engagement on epidemic preparedness in the Western and Central African regions.
