From 8 to 11 October, Dakar, Senegal, was the scene of the annual meeting of the 2023 Grand Challenges. Co-chaired by Macky Sall, President of Senegal, and Bill Gates, founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the theme of the meeting was “Science Saves Lives”. The aim was to explore how the global health community can push back the frontiers of science and innovation to save and improve lives.

The meeting has featured three mainstage plenary sessions whose the thematics are: Innovation saves lives, science saves lives and collaboration saves lives

Afrique One was represented at this important meeting by its director, Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh. He moderated a panel devoted to “Emerging Research and Data on Climate and Health”.

“During this panel, we presented current research on the impact of climate change on human health and how the data obtained can be used to guide policy development. Good data save life. In this sense, partnerships between countries remain important for the implementation of a global approach to accelerate the impact of research”, said Prof. Bonfoh.

For better funding of research in Africa

Bill Gates took the opportunity of this major event to call on governments to invest more in research. “We need more funding for research and development in global health. In 2021, only 4 billion dollars were spent on diseases that mainly affect the poor, such as malaria and tuberculosis. This represents only a tiny fraction of health research and development spending on diseases that kill millions of people (…) That’s why I will never stop calling on governments, philanthropists and the private sector to do more.”

Related content: The challenges of funding research in Africa by Prof. Bassirou Bonfoh

Credit photo: Grands Challenges