Changemaker dissemination event in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, January 2026

March 10, 2026

From 21^st-23^rd January 2026, the CHANGEMAKER consortium participated in a dissemination event of three large-scale collaborative research programs on climate change, nutrition and health in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The event focused on discussing research processes and applicable results of:

EU-funded “Changemaker” project on sustainable health among adolescents in urban Burkina Faso, Kenya and Tanzania (https://changemaker.ki.se/);
Robert Bosch Foundation-funded project “Sustainable nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFJJFP1RqXg);
DFG-funded Research Unit “Climate Change and Health in sub-Saharan Africa” (cch-africa.de).

The event was hosted by Dr. Ali Sié, Director of Centre de Recherche en Santé de Nouna (CRSN) and Prof. Dr. Abdramane Soura, Principal Scientist at Institut Supérieur des Sciences de la Population (ISSP). It was organized by Prof. Dr. Ina Danquah, who is deputy coordinator of the Changemaker project and from University of Bonn, Germany (UoB). Over 30 researchers and 40 stakeholders from Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ghana, Germany, France, Sweden and the United States convened to discuss implementation insights, results interpretations, published conclusions, and knowledge transfer into practice.

Day 1-Tuesday 21^stJanuary 2026

Dr. Issa Ouedraogo, Secretary General of the Burkina Faso Ministry of Health launched the workshop through his opening remarks. On the first day, project representatives provided an overview of the procedures and key findings of all three projects.

For the “Changemaker” project, Dr. Erick M.O. Muok (Kenya Medical Research Institute, KEMRI) and Mr Arthur Wamani (Food Security for Peace and Nutrition) gave an overview of the project’s concept and processes. The co-design and co-creation of the intervention components have taken place in all three study sites 2024/2025; baseline assessments are currently being conducted; and the implementation of the intervention has recently commenced. The snapshot of Day 1 sessions and the overall remarks of Prof. Ina Danquah were broadcasted by the Burkina Faso National Tv (https://youtu.be/EIFxCAugRM4?si=RsrkrLXO0aC-JvVE).

Day 2-Wedneday 22^nd January 2026

Together with partners from HIGH and KEMRI, the principal investigators Dr. Ali Sié (CRSN), Prof. Dr. Abdramane Soura (ISSP), and Prof. Dr. Ina Danquah (UoB) met Hon. Dr. Robert Lucien Jean-Claude Kargougou, the Minister of Health of Burkina Faso. They discussed the contributions of the collaborative research to evidence generation and policy making in Burkina Faso.

This second day was dedicated to domain- and methods-specific workshops in parallel breakout sessions. Three sessions focused on maintenance, scaling and spread of the projects’ activities beyond the funding period. Facilitated by Dr. Raissa Sorgho (UoB), among others, the participants from practice and politics highlighted challenges related to social support, financial constraints, lack of political will, and fear of change. They provided avenues to overcome these challenges, such as strong partnerships and strategic investment goals. The sessions also included demonstrations of novel tools for the assessment of nutritional status, including the new MUACz-score tape being used in Changemaker.

Additional sessions contributed to discussions on technology-supported health promotion, disease prevention, and treatment in Burkina Faso. This included non-invasive devices for health examinations within Changemaker.

Day 3-Thursday 23^rd January 2026

The third day was dedicated to field visits, including but not limited to the intervention schools of the Changemaker project, where school gardens and sustainable health modules are being established. The site visits served the purposes of demonstration, engagement with community members, gaining contextual understanding of the intervention activities, and formulation of new research questions.