Africa is strengthening its capacity to generate, share and apply scientific knowledge in public health policymaking through a continental initiative led by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
At the centre of this effort is the Africa Health Knowledge Hub, a digital platform designed to improve access to research, scientific evidence and practical lessons from public health programmes across the continent.
The initiative seeks to address a longstanding challenge in African healthcare: the gap between the production of scientific research and its application in policies and public health interventions.
Africa produces approximately three per cent of global health research, while an estimated 14 per cent of available evidence informs policy. Research findings can also take up to 17 years to be adopted in practice, delaying the benefits of scientific discoveries for communities.
The Africa Health Knowledge Hub is helping to bridge this gap by providing researchers, policymakers, health professionals and institutions with a shared platform to access and exchange scientific evidence and technical resources.
According to Africa CDC, the Hub hosts more than 1,000 knowledge products and has attracted over 260,000 users. It has been accessed from more than 180 countries and supports over 40 communities of practice and discussion forums.
The platform provides an opportunity for African countries to learn from one another, share successful public health interventions and draw on research findings when designing healthcare policies and programmes.
Strengthening national knowledge systems
Beyond the digital platform, Africa CDC is supporting individual countries to establish functional knowledge management systems that improve how research findings, innovations and public health experiences are documented and shared.
The initiative has reached nine countries: Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia and Uganda.
The longer-term ambition is to extend these efforts across all 55 African Union Member States, creating stronger national and continental systems for managing and applying health knowledge.
This approach recognises that research findings have greater value when institutions can access them, assess their relevance and translate them into practical interventions.
It also creates opportunities for countries to learn from experiences elsewhere in Africa rather than repeatedly developing solutions to similar public health challenges independently.
Creating opportunities for African research
Africa CDC is complementing the Knowledge Hub with initiatives aimed at increasing the generation and publication of African health research.
One is its work on evidence generation and translation, which focuses on strengthening the link between scientific research and policymaking.
Another is the Journal of Public Health in Africa, which provides a platform for African researchers to publish scientific findings and contribute to public health debates.
Together, these initiatives seek to strengthen the role of African researchers and institutions in shaping healthcare policies, rather than relying predominantly on evidence generated outside the continent.
Africa CDC reports that its efforts have contributed to more than 300 high-impact, policy-relevant scientific outputs.
The organisation has also developed and validated a Continental Knowledge Management Strategy and Framework, alongside a Continental Knowledge Translation Guideline to support countries in putting research into practice.
Digital technology and artificial intelligence
Africa CDC is now looking to expand national knowledge management systems, strengthen the capacity to generate and synthesise evidence, and use digital technologies to improve access to scientific information.
Artificial intelligence is among the tools being explored to support knowledge access and exchange.
Used effectively, digital technologies could make it easier for health professionals and policymakers to find relevant research, identify emerging public health trends and share lessons from interventions across different countries.
The success of these efforts will depend on reliable digital infrastructure, institutional capacity, data quality and the ability of national health systems to incorporate evidence into decision-making.
Africa CDC is working with Member States and development partners, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mastercard Foundation and the World Bank, to advance the initiative.
The broader ambition is to build a stronger African public health knowledge ecosystem in which research generated on the continent informs decisions affecting its people.
As African countries work to strengthen healthcare systems and respond to emerging health threats, the ability to produce, share and apply their own scientific evidence is increasingly important.
The Africa Health Knowledge Hub represents one effort to ensure that African research does not remain confined to academic publications, but contributes directly to better policies, more effective health programmes and improved health outcomes.