Liberia’s Science Conference Opens With Calls to Turn Research Into Action

Researchers, health officials and partners at the opening of the 5th Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference in Congo Town this week.

By Joyclyn Wea, gender and health correspondent with New Narratives

Summary:

• The 5th Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference opened in Monrovia this week, bringing researchers and policymakers together to examine evidence from Liberia’s health system.
• Organizers said the conference is helping young scientists present and publish research. Officials promised to take its findings into health policy discussions.
• Experts said new research on Ebola preparedness and previous findings on Lassa fever show why local evidence matters, and the measure of success is what changes in communities afterward.

CONGO TOWN, Monrovia — Scientists, health workers and government officials gathered for the Emmet A. Dennis National Scientific Conference, a national gathering of Liberian researchers presenting evidence they hope will shape how the country prevents disease and cares for patients. This is the fifth annual conference.

The three-day meeting at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex brings together Liberian researchers, students and health policymakers to discuss infectious diseases, maternal health, health financing, climate-related health threats and other challenges. Organizers said nearly 100 research paper summaries were submitted for the conference, with roughly 90 accepted for oral or poster presentations.

“We want to find Liberian solutions for Liberian problems and perhaps for global problems as well,” said Dr. Sia Wata Camanor, acting director general of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, in her opening remarks.

The conference offers a snapshot of Liberia’s growing research community since the 2014–2016 Ebola epidemic, the biggest outbreak anywhere of the deadly disease which left nearly 5,000 Liberians dead. Experts said it also poses a test: whether findings presented before government officials will become decisions that make health services safer and more effective for ordinary Liberians.

The Ebola epidemic exposed serious weaknesses in disease detection, laboratory testing and emergency response. Liberia established the National Public Health Institute in its wake in 2016. Two years later, the Institute and its partners launched the scientific conference, named for Dr. Emmet A. Dennis, a pioneering biomedical researcher and former University of Liberia president.

One goal was to help district and county surveillance officers turn information gathered in clinics and communities into research they could analyze, present, and publish. Another was to develop younger Liberian scientists and ensure that national health priorities were not set entirely by foreign partners.

At the opening, Camanor said the conference now connects students, universities, laboratories and public health agencies. She announced that organizers would issue a communiqué after the meeting and share it with the government, the Ministry of Health and partners.

Bode Ireti Shobayo, the Institute’s director of public health and biomedical research and chair of the conference planning committee, said selected presentations can be turned into policy briefs and scientific manuscripts. The Institute will also mentor researchers to prepare papers for international academic journals.

“We want to go beyond just presenting for presenting’s sake,” Shobayo said in an interview before the conference.

Uriah Harrington, speaking on behalf of President Joseph Boakai, said the conference is key to helping the country shift away from responding only after crises emerge.

“We must transition from reactive passive response to proactive science-driven governance,” he said. The administration pledged to support domestic research capacity, mentoring and evidence-based health policy, but the remarks did not specify new funding amounts or plans.

Partners said the success of the conferences to date could be seen in changes in Liberia’s scientific workforce. A representative of the African Field Epidemiology Network, a non-profit network that trains African health workers to be “disease detectives,” said its field epidemiology training work in Liberia has expanded since it was established in 2015 from frontline to intermediate training, with some professionals pursuing advanced courses abroad. A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representative said Liberian epidemiologists now lead outbreak investigations and produce their own research.

Dr. Stephen B. Kennedy, a University of Liberia researcher and Institute board chair, said Liberians have developed the skills to study infectious diseases and contribute to international vaccine research, even as shortages of money, laboratory infrastructure and supplies limit what they can do. “We have the expertise, we have the capacity.”

But the ability to present a paper is different from changing policy or action. Shobayo could not say how many recommendations from earlier editions had been adopted or provide a public record showing which decisions and services had changed.

He pointed to recent work on Lassa Fever as one example of the promise offered by Liberian researchers. A 2022 study co-authored by Shobayo found the disease appearing outside its traditional hotspots in Nimba, Bong and Grand Bassa counties and contributed to the government’s decision to expand its activities to other counties.

But some experts have questioned whether the conference’s contributions to national policy and actions have been enough. Joseph Somwarbi, a pharmacologist and former chair of the House Committee on Health, said policymakers should make those links visible to the public.

“What are the indicators?” he asked, calling for evidence of the decisions taken and benefits to affected communities.

Alpha Tamba, with the World Health Organization, urged organizers to publish the findings and make them accessible, including to the communities they are meant to serve. He said that would give health workers, journalists and residents a way to follow what happens after the speeches and presentations.

This year’s presentations included The National Public Health Institute’s nationwide Ebola preparedness assessment done earlier this year. Officials previously reported a 69 percent overall readiness score and 47 percent for logistics. The Institute has not published the detailed scoring method or facility-by-facility findings that experts said were necessary to fully interpret them. When the results were released in September, health workers welcomed the assessment but said the government needed to follow up to close the gaps to make sure they feel safe.

For three days, the conference will put Liberian evidence before people with the power to act on it. Its larger measure will come later: which recommendations the government accepts, what resources follow, and whether patients and communities can see the difference.

This story was produced in collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Investigating Liberia project. The funder had no say in the story’s content.