At the end of July 2023, the kick-off meeting for the structural development activities of the LabTrain project took place, which is part of the Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP) of the Federal Ministry of Health, based at BfArM. The GHPP LabTrain project is built on three pillars: training, monograph work, and structural development. With the start of the second funding phase of the GHPP, the structural development pillar was newly introduced to provide more targeted support and strengthening for the participating West African drug regulatory authorities and their quality control laboratories.

Representatives from the West African partner institutions in Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, as well as partners from InphA, BfArM, and WHO, attended the kick-off meeting. The meeting aimed to introduce the GHPP, the GHPP LabTrain project, and particularly the structural development pillar. A special focus was placed on the West African partner institutions and their quality control laboratories, which presented the current status and challenges of their respective facilities. This was followed by a constructive exchange on the upcoming project activities and the timeline.

For 2023, a baseline assessment is planned, which will serve as the basis for creating individual structural development plans for the laboratories. Additionally, project visits to the partner institutions and the development of a basic training program are planned, with its implementation scheduled for 2024.