CSRS & SWISS TPH COLLABORATION - TOWARDS TRANSDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION FOR URBAN PUBLIC HEALTH AND A HEALTHIER, FAIRER CITY.

Adiopodoumé - 12-14 February 2025

As part of the twinning of the towns of Yopougon and Basel, and with the aim of improving the living conditions and well-being of the most vulnerable populations, a preliminary workshop was organised in August 2024, bringing together the heads of CSRS and SwissTPH. This workshop highlighted the need to establish solid platforms to facilitate ‘research to policy’ and ‘policy to research’ initiatives to better understand the current and long-term impacts of public health challenges linked simultaneously to rapid urbanisation, demographic transition and climate change in the cities of sub-Saharan Africa.

Addressing the problems of urbanisation in African cities by seeking solutions to existing challenges (lack of housing and means of transport, poor sanitation and waste management, restricted public spaces for walking and leisure, as well as air, noise, water and soil pollution) and by anticipating those linked to climate change, in particular extreme heat, floods, extreme heat, changes in the environment and climate change, as well as air, noise, water and soil pollution) and anticipating those linked to climate change, notably extreme heat, flooding, changes in the ecology of disease vectors, and water scarcity, among others, are becoming increasingly urgent.

The meeting of 12-14 February 2025, which brought together the CSRS delegation represented by Dr Dao Daouda - DGA and Director of Valorisation, Prof Koudou Benjamin, Director of Research, and Dr Siaka Koné, among others, and the SwissTPH delegation from Basel made up of Prof Nicole Probst-Hensch, Prof Mirko Winkler and Dr Vitor Pessoa Colombo, therefore had two specific objectives defined in August 2024:

• Determine the framework conditions for establishing a sustainable, high-impact research infrastructure;
• To identify the key local and national players, as well as development agencies and potentially private entities or foundations, who will make it possible for this infrastructure to operate in the long term.

Ultimately, the aim is to explore the possibility of a transdisciplinary platform enabling evidence-based decision-making and thus promoting healthy and sustainable living environments in the commune of Yopougon. In addition to CSRS and SwissTPH, other stakeholders from research institutions and public administrations in Côte d'Ivoire and Switzerland, the commune of Yopougon and, depending on the resources available and the objectives defined, the District of Abidjan, the Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage, and the city of Basel are expected to join the platform in the near future.

After the rehabilitation of a primary school and the construction of a health centre in Yopougon Extension millionaire, due to open in 2024, there can be no doubt that this meeting is another step towards making Yopougon a healthier and fairer town.