Addressing the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

The UK Academy of Medical Sciences, in collaboration with 7 Academies and organisations from Low- and Middle- Income Countries: Argentina; Brazil; India; Malaysia; the Philippines; South Africa; and The African Academy of Sciences, hosted an international virtual workshop on the response to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The workshop considered the current response to the COVID-19 pandemic across three specific areas – public health; social and behavioural; and clinical – in several low- and middle-income countries across the world: Malaysia, Philippines, India, South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Brazil and Argentina.

Following the workshop, a written report is being produced which will summarise the discussion which took place and highlight the agreed priorities and actions. The report will be disseminated to UK and international stakeholders. 

A copy of the programme can be downloaded from the downloads tab on the right hand side of this page. 

The final day of this workshop brought together each of the three themes - public health; social and behavioural; and clinical - into one forum. This session also included a series of keynote presentations from Professor David Heymann, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Dr Margaret Hamburg and Dr Moses Alobo that reflect upon different aspects of the COVID-19 response around the globe. The plenary session  identified commonalities between thematic groups, and explored opportunities to support each other in setting out a pathway to achieve proposed solutions. You can watch this session below. 

For all media and press enquiries relating to this workshop, please contact the Academy of Medical Sciences' Press Office via Dr Claire Bithell claire.bithell@acmedsci.ac.uk, +44 (0)7969 082520.

Aims: This workshop looked to highlight steps taken in the response to COVID-19, identify progress made and challenges faced and discuss collective opportunities to build upon and continue such efforts in future. Particular focus was given throughout to the role of scientific advice in pandemics, the acquisition of evidence and methods to link evidence and policy. The workshop provided a platform for countries to share knowledge of successful approaches, and measures, which have not worked so well, to better support the global response to the pandemic going forwards. To do so, our aims were as follows:

• Bring together evidence from eight low- and middle-income countries from across the world.
• Consider how health systems are responding to the pandemic by discussing key challenges in the provision of effective interventions.
• Consider the role of science in the pandemic response, explore methods of acquiring scientific evidence and evaluate the challenges of getting this evidence into policy in fast-moving environments. 
• Based on the evidence, identify gaps in our knowledge and the associated research priorities.
• Consider lessons that can be learned by each country from the other and opportunities to work together.

Workshop Chair

Professor Guy Thwaites FMedSci, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit/Wellcome Programme, Vietnam

Public Health Group Chair

Dr Jaime Montoya, Professor in Infectious Disease at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, Philippines 

Behavioural/Social Group Chair

Professor Heidi Van Rooyen, Executive Director of the Human and Social Development Programme at the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa 

Clinical Group Chair

Professor Rosalind Smyth CBE FMedSci, Director of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health and Professor of Child Health, University College London, UK