Strengthening Health and Disease Modelling for Public Health Decision Making in Africa: Cohort Management Strategy

The Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation presents a cohort management strategy for the Wellcome and Gates Foundation grantees, Strengthening Health and Disease Modelling for Public Health Decision Making in Africa, and its stakeholders. In this strategy, we discuss the envisioned role of SFA Foundation in supporting, strengthening and promoting the research work from the grantees through successful cohort management. Primarily, the types of activities guided by SFA Foundation for the cohort would include development of a Grand Challenges (GC) Modeling cohort, policy and decision-making engagements, opportunities for visibility and thought leadership, knowledge exchanges, and capacity strengthening. These preliminary activities will also be informed by an inception meeting and needs assessment with the grantee cohort and the report of the 2023 Kigali workshop on the same theme. The Kigali workshop provides strong contributions of LMIC champions and experts, building upon established frameworks for change in public health modeling to shape policy and programmatic decisions. The workshop also explored holistic and sustainable solutions to improve the use of modeling in Africa across country, regional, and continental levels. Lastly, linkages to previous modelling cohorts supported by Gates and Wellcome will be facilitated by encouraging networking with PIs of the current GC Modelling cohort.