Botswana - Assistance to the Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa (TESA) network

Title: TESA II Reference Laboratory establishment

Code: D19-08, D19-12

Date: May - August 2019

Location: Mozambique, Botswana, South Africa

Client: Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa, through the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development

Type of services:

• Conducting assessments of capacity, structure, strengths and weaknesses to determine readiness to become reference laboratory for the Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa (TESA) network at:
  • The laboratory of the Centre em Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça (CISM), Mozambique, envisaged to become TESA malaria reference laboratory
  • The laboratory of the Botswana-Harvard Partnership, envisaged to become TESA HIV reference laboratory
  • The laboratory of the Stellenbosch University (SUN), envisaged to become TB reference laboratory
  • The laboratory of the University of Cape Town, to assess capacity to support SUN.
• Conducting interviews with TESA network members to determine needs in terms of reference laboratory testing and support.
• Providing assistance to CISM with resolving nonconformities identified in an ISO 15189:2012 audit conducted by the Portuguese National Accreditation Body.
• Facilitating a workshop to analyse interview and laboratory assessment findings, determine Terms of Reference for TESA reference laboratories, mapping progress of the TESA II project, and improving the TESA and institutional acquisition strategies.

Report(s):

[1 August 2019] In the months of June and July the focus of DATOS’ activities broadened to strengthening research laboratories by assisting the Trials of Excellence in Southern Africa network, shortly TESA network.

The TESA network was launched in 2009 during the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) phase 1. The objective of this network is to strengthen clinical research capacities in Southern Africa as well as increase North-South and South-South networks. Currently, TESA incorporates 13 institutions in eight Southern African and four European countries. The activities of the TESA network currently focus mostly on capacity building and strengthening less established institutions for the identification, treatment and prevention of poverty-related infectious diseases in the Southern Region of Africa.

DATOS was asked to assist with the establishment of reference laboratories within this network for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. In June we visited:

• The laboratory of the Botswana Harvard Partnership (BHP) which is envisaged to become TESA HIV reference laboratory
• The laboratory of the Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça (CISM) which is envisaged to become the TESA malaria reference laboratory.

We conducted an assessment at both laboratories to investigate their structure, capacity, quality management system, and other strengths and weaknesses.

During a joint workshop directly following the laboratory visits, the teams of both institutes and the experts of DATOS formulated Terms of Reference (ToR) for the TESA reference laboratories and, based on that, developed an action plan for both laboratories to work towards implementing the ToR. Source: //blog.datos-advice.nl/?p=68

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