WHO and ANRS | CEF: cooperation

Unity is strength ? In a joint press release (July 4), the ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases and the World Health Organization (WHO) have announced the signing of a “Memorandum of Understanding to support and strengthen their cooperation in research and knowledge transfer in order to produce recommendations on the international community and implement health policies in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The signing took place on June 27, 2022, in Paris, on the occasion of the International Network Days of the ANRS | MIE. The protocol is structured around three several components: jointly identifying research gaps and priorities to improve prevention; the treatment and care of HIV, hepatitis and STIs and develop research programs and innovative approaches on the priorities identified; facilitate the implementation and adaptation of priority research programs by providing technical support and building human and technical capacity in LMICs; promote knowledge sharing, dissemination and transfer of research findings to inform WHO’s global normative work and support policy and programmatic decision-making at the national level. “Strengthening collaboration and research is an integral part of the 2022–2030 global health sector strategies against, respectively, HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections to guide the health sector and accelerate implementation targeted strategic responses to achieve the goal of ending AIDS, viral hepatitis B and C and sexually transmitted infections by 2030,” said Dr Meg Doherty, Director of the Department of HIV, Hepatitis, Infections sexually transmitted diseases (STIs) from the WHO. “The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to better coordinate research on a global scale and to involve French and international operators in a dynamic of cohesion. Today, it is essential to grasp this commitment and take it beyond the field of emergence. The memorandum of understanding that we are signing today embodies this ambition, which aims in particular to contribute to the targets of the third sustainable development objective by 2030”, defended, for his part, Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of the ANRS. | MIE.