Strengthening the Franco-Ivorian partnership in global health

On Tuesday 24^th January 2023, the ANRS | Emerging Infectious Diseases, the University of Bordeaux and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) joined forces with the Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage (MSHP -in French), the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS - in French), the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF - in French) in Côte d’Ivoire, the PAC-CI association (in French) and the French Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire (in French) to sign an agreement for the launch of a new International Research Platform in Global Health (PRISME). This international and inter-institutional initiative will contribute to the definition of preparation and response strategies adapted to emerging and re-emerging epidemics.

During the scientific days of the PAC-CI Ivorian research programme held in Abidjan on January 23^rd and 24^th (in French), several French and Ivorian institutions met to strengthen their partnership in scientific research. This new stage of cooperation follows on from a relationship that began in the 1990s between Côte d’Ivoire, France and their researchers.

Signed in 1996 between the government of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire (represented by the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Economy and Finance) and the French government (represented by the ANRS and the French Embassy in Côte d’Ivoire), a memorandum of understanding marks the creation of the PAC-CI programme enabling the two countries to conduct HIV research together. The PAC-CI programme aims to train personnel in medical research and to implement research on infectious diseases in order to produce useful results for the affected populations.

This Franco-Ivorian collaboration has continued to grow ever since. In 2010, the PAC-CI framework agreement was renewed by the four founding members of the programme and by three new partners: the University of Bordeaux, Inserm and the MESRS.

A Franco-Ivorian project management platform, coordinated by the PAC-CI association and the GHiGS team of the Bordeaux Population Health Research Centre (University of Bordeaux and Inserm unit), was also created the same year in order to optimise the management of studies conducted in Africa by the PAC-CI programme, and also on other continents.

The PAC-CI scientific days also included the signature of the "Interdisciplinary Policy-Oriented Research on Africa" (IPORA) consortium agreement.
IPORA is one of the University of Bordeaux's Major Research Programmes.

The IPORA project brings together four universities: the University of Bordeaux (France), the University Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopa) and the International University of Rabat (Morocco), with the support of Sciences Po Bordeaux, Inserm, IRD and Bordeaux Montaigne University.

I​​​​​​PORA aims to conduct interdisciplinary research to help public decision-makers deal with the major changes that the African continent is going through, such as the demographic growth of cities, climate change, etc. The French, Moroccan, Ethiopian and Ivorian research teams participating in IPORA work in the fields of public health, economics, political science, socio-anthropology, law, environmental physics and food systems.