Health policy and systems research capacity development to support maternal, new-born, child and adolescent health in West and Central Africa.

Objectives: To examine how and why a South-South capacity development and networking program for leadership, research, practice and advocacy on maternal new-born, child and adolescent health and health policy and systems strengthening in West Africa and Cameroon worked and identify lessons for low- and middle-income countries.

Design: Single qualitative case study drawing on data from document review, observations, key informant interviews and a deliberative workshop. Ethics approval for primary data collection was obtained from the Ghana Health Service Ethical Review Committee (GHS-ERC 012/10/18).

Historical and contemporary factors that influenced the emergence and continuity of WANEL: Lessons for sustainable HPSR network formation in LMICs.

Objectives: To explore historical and contemporary factors and processes that influenced the emergence of WANEL and analyse how the formation process has influenced the network's continued existence and sustainability and lesson for sub-regional health policy and systems research (HPSR) networking in Low -and -Middle -Income Countries (LMICs).

Design: Qualitative explanatory case study which used process tracing to chart the formation and development of WANEL.

Methods: Data was obtained through document reviews, semi-structured interviews, group discussions, and participant observation.

Establishing communities of practice to improve health policy, systems and reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in West Africa.

Objectives: To explore and analyse factors that facilitate and inhibit the initiation and functioning of a national and transnational Community of Practice (CoP) for health policy and systems (HPS) and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH) in West Africa and to identify lessons for CoP interventions in similar multilingual low and middle-income contexts.

Design: A case study, with the case defined as processes, enablers and barriers to the initiation and functioning of a national and transnational CoP for HSP and RMNCAH in West Africa and drawing on a review and analysis of secondary data from the program, workshop, country team and project reports, and training sessions.

Setting: The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Asserting public health interest in acting on commercial determinants of health in sub-Saharan Africa: insights from a discourse analysis.

The actors influencing the commercial determinants of health (CDOH) in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have different interests and lenses around the costs and benefits of market influences in health. We analysed the views and priorities on CDOH in the discourse of global and regional agencies, SSA governments, private investors and companies, civil society and academia through a desk review of online publications post-2010, validated by purposively selected key informant interviews.The most polarised views were between civil society and academia on one hand, focused more on harms, and private business/investors on the other, almost exclusively focused on benefits.

Strengthening equitable health systems in West Africa: The regional project on governance research for equity in health systems.

The West African Health Organization (WAHO) supported an innovative regional initiative that contributes to building effective decision making, community and researcher partnerships to strengthen equitable health systems and influence local programmes and policies. Four projects were funded in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Senegal, supported by a Regional Advisory Committee of experts and local Steering Committees. Based on a framework drawn from WAHO objectives, we reviewed documents, conducted 56 project stakeholder interviews and undertook thematic analysis.

Strengthening capacities and resource allocation for co-production of health research in low and middle income countries.

share experiences and ideas to strengthen capacity for health research co-production in low and middle income countries

The change-makers of West Africa.

West Africa was the focus of global attention during the Ebola virus disease outbreak, when systemic health system weaknesses compounded a serious emergency and complicated response efforts. Following the crisis, calls were made to strengthen health systems, but investments to date have fallen short of delivering the support needed to build strong health systems able to prevent and manage future outbreaks.In part, this reality serves to highlight the shortcomings of the solutions being repeatedly prioritised by external funders and experts, solutions that often fail to consider the wealth of West African evidence and actors actively working to strengthen the leadership and health systems needed to drive and sustainably improve national health outcomes.