Following the outcome of the results of the regional consultations on the health-related SDGs by the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), in June 2017, the West African Ministers of Health, recommended that WAHO support the construction of a regional coalition responsible for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs and regularly reporting on progress.
In this perspective, WAHO has joined the Senegalese Agricultural and Rural Foresight Initiative (IPAR) to explore ways to contribute to monitoring progress in implementing health-related SDGs at national and regional levels.
With support from IDRC, IPAR would conduct three case studies in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Senegal with the aim of: (i) Identifying indicators common to these countries to initiate a more harmonized monitoring approach in the West African region; (ii) Examining the availability of data for the relevant indicators; (iii) Working with key civil society organizations (CSOs) to analyze their involvement in monitoring health-related SDGs ; and (iv) Proposing approaches to improve the national and regional monitoring of identified indicators.
IPAR convened participants under the leadership of WAHO at a regional workshop in Dakar on April 15-16, 2019. Participants include representatives of the Ministries of Health of 15 West African countries, think tank and university researchers, representatives of civil society as well as other technical and financial partners.
The workshop provided a platform to share the results of the regional synthesis, discuss proposed indicators, analyze in depth the availability of data for the selected indicators, specify the nature of the data and establish the baseline.
CSEA’s Research Director on health Dr. Chinny Ogunro contributed to In-depth discussions on the results of the case studies.