External Quality Assurance in Africa (EQuAfrica) - phase 2

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Supports the development of external quality assurance practices in laboratories around Africa which ensures confidence in laboratory testing results

This grant helps improve quality assurance of laboratory testing in Africa. Quality assurance is commonly acknowledged best practice and underpins confidence in the results of a laboratory. AMR surveillance systems must have external quality assurance (EQA) for bacteria identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, which tests how well antibiotic drugs are working. However, EQA is expensive and the expertise required is not regularly accessible to many laboratories in low- and middle-income countries. The Fleming Fund grants aim to strengthen EQA in these two critical areas - bacteria identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing.

Grantees:

African Society of Laboratory Medicine (ASLM)

Sub-Grantees:

Centre for Healthcare Associated infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses (CHARM), National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Institute Pasteur de Dakar (IPD), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC), Amref Health Africa

Duration:

Oct 2023 - Dec 2025

Value:

£2,458,558

Countries:

Cameroon, Eswatini, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Siera Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Objectives

• Establish sustainable access to EQA in Africa and support supranational quality assurance.
• Training and TA to microbiology at National Reference Laboratories.