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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Disaster and Emergency Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1455444
This article is part of the Research Topic Learning Interventions and Training: Providing Support during Health Emergencies View all 16 articles

The Evolutionary Journey to A New Normal for Learning and Capacity Building of Healthcare Workers to Prepare and Respond to Health Emergencies Across Africa

Provisionally accepted
Boukaré Bonkoungou Boukaré Bonkoungou 1*Fausta Mosha Fausta Mosha 2Amarachi Tikal Abianuru Amarachi Tikal Abianuru 1Joseph Okeibunor Joseph Okeibunor 1Heini Utunen Heini Utunen 3Giselle Balaciano Giselle Balaciano 3Ana Carolina Barbosa De Lima Ana Carolina Barbosa De Lima 4Lauren Burke Lauren Burke 4Shannon Mckenna Shannon Mckenna 4Sukriti Nag Sukriti Nag 5Abdou Salam Gueye Abdou Salam Gueye 1Bruce Baird Struminger Bruce Baird Struminger 4
  • 1 World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
  • 2 World Health Organization Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean, Cairo, Beni Suef, Egypt
  • 3 World Health Organization (Switzerland), Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
  • 4 ECHO Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
  • 5 ECHO India Trust, New Delhi, India

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Faced with COVID-19 mobility restrictions, the WHO AFRO EPR program pioneered a collaborative initiative with Project ECHO to virtually educate health workers across Africa at scale. This initiative evolved into a transformative learning journey. This paper aims to present the lessons learned.Results: From April 2020 to February 2024, 287 virtual learning sessions were conducted with over 125,816 attendances from 173 countries and regions. This marked a significant increase compared to pre-pandemic face-to-face training, which targeted fewer than 2,000 participants annually. Survey responses (n=43,221) indicated high relevance and applicability, with 97% of respondents planning to use the information in their work and 89% finding the sessions very or extremely relevant. Selfreported knowledge levels increased from 28% to 74% post-session.Discussion: Integrating digital learning into WHO AFRO's education and training toolkit has facilitated immediate emergency responses and enhanced long-term resilience, adaptability, and equity among healthcare workers, especially in under-resourced regions. This initiative has reached more health professionals than pre-pandemic in-person training, facilitating more equitable access to essential knowledge and best practices.The WHO AFRO and Project ECHO partnership navigated a variety of challenges, while establishing a paradigm shift in learning strategies. Emphasizing a digital learning first PAGE \* Arabic \* MERGEFORMAT 4 approach, while retaining in-person elements, this collaborative initiative offers nsights for future healthcare education, highlighting adaptability, cost-efficiency, equity, and new technologies in addressing global health challenges. However, to sustain this momentum and further expand access to critical knowledge, stakeholders must commit to continued investment in digital learning infrastructure, training, and technology.

    Keywords: Health emergencies, Capacity Building, learning interventions, health information, Just-in-Time Learning, Knowledge dissemination

    Received: 26 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bonkoungou, Mosha, Abianuru, Okeibunor, Utunen, Balaciano, Barbosa De Lima, Burke, Mckenna, Nag, Gueye and Struminger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Boukaré Bonkoungou, World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of Congo

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.