Building on Local Knowledge and Community Action within Mid-term Workshop of One Health Project
The project applies an One Health approach by supporting community-driven solutions aimed at reducing the burden of Lassa Fever in South East Nigeria. The consortium has recently met for a mid-term workshop.
Effective infectious disease prevention starts at the community level. The COPE project operates on the principle that communities themselves are best equipped to identify and address the own health-related concerns. From 19 to 23 August 2024, the project lead of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and representatives from Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI), the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI), the University of Ibadan (UI) and RKI’s Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) gathered in Berlin for the COPE project mid-term review workshop. This workshop provided a platform to assess the project’s progress and to plan next steps.
Since December 2023, COPE has initiated several key field activities:
- anthropological fieldwork;
- the first of two risk assessments covering human, animal, and environmental factors in everyday community life;
- community-led participatory needs assessment and intervention synthesis;
- the initial stages of community-led intervention implementation.
The progress of this intervention was highlighted during a ZIG Talk titled “Communities taking action on their own health needs”, presented by the project’s principal investigator, the risk communication officer, and the project anthropologist as part of the workshop week. The talk also included the presentation of first outputs of the community engagement, among them the first food storage baskets created by the community in collaboration with local artisans.
In addition to formal sessions on milestone reviews, data analysis as well as roadmap and outreach planning, the workshop featured team-building activities such as sightseeing in Berlin. Nigerian colleagues also toured the RKI laboratory and exchanged ideas with RKI staff, strengthening collaboration. The finance teams from NCDC and RKI met to discuss best practices and reinforce administrative coordination.
Looking ahead, further anthropological fieldwork and a second One Health Risk Assessment are planned for early 2025, as the project continues to emphasise how local resources and knowledge play a central role in shaping effective and sustainable health interventions.
