Context
As part of the response to the 2018 Ebola epidemic, the French and Congolese governments signed a “Franco-Congolese roadmap for the fight against Ebola and other epidemics” in November 2019. The French Development Agency (AFD) actively supports the health sector by financing several projects, including support for the laboratory system and epidemiological surveillance.
In this context, the AFD has chosen the Mérieux Foundation to support the INRB in developing its role as a leader in medical biology and as a coordinator of a network of national laboratories.
Objective
The project, launched in May 2024 for a period of three years, aims to strengthen the organizational and technical capacities of the National Institute for Biomedical Research in its role as a national public health laboratory, and particularly its mandate as a national reference laboratory for antimicrobial resistance, in conjunction with the national reference hospitals in Kinshasa and taking into account the reduction of gender inequalities.
Activities
The project is structured around four pillars of action:
Institutional strengthening of the INRB
- Construction of an administrative building to house the offices
- Conducting an institutional and organizational assessment of the INRB
- Strengthening the quality management system at the INRB in Kinshasa and Goma
- Development of a gender action plan and related activities
Combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR)
- Strengthening the bacteriology technical platform at the six beneficiary sites
- Staff training
- Implementation of the Updated Technical Protocol for Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (TSARA)
- Point Prevalence Surveys (PPS)
- Strengthening of AMR Stewardship and Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) committees
- Support in reporting data to the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS – WHO)
- Recommendations for revising the National Antibiotic Therapy Guide
Malaria control
- Pilot study using AI – MalarIA
- Collaboration between the INRB malaria NRL and the NRL in France
- Evaluation of the tool’s effectiveness in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Evaluation of the tool’s contribution to remote supervision and support for peripheral laboratories
Strengthening practical hospital training
- Updating tools for supervising internships for future biologists at three sites
- Strengthening the pool of specialists in bacteriology and AMR control
- Internships in collaboration with university hospitals in France
