From AFCON to ELEMMINATE: Senegal’s Dual Victory in January 2026

While most of Senegal celebrated their national football team’s journey to AFCON 2026 victory in January, forty health leaders gathered at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar for a different kind of competition—one against malaria, inadequate health systems, and the persistent challenges that have long hampered Africa’s development. Between January 19 and 21, 2026, these district medical officers, regional health directors, focal point coordinators, nurses, and pharmacists participated in the first module of the ELEMMINATE programme’s mid-level leaders training. The timing was not lost on participants: as Senegal’s footballers fought for continental glory, these health leaders were learning to lead their own battles for better health outcomes.

The week of training coincided with heightened national pride as Senegal competed in and ultimately won AFCON 2026. Senior officials from the Ministry of Health and Social Action, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, and the National Malaria Control Programme brought that same energy to the opening ceremony on January 20. Dr. Mouhamadou Lamine Ly, representing the Ministry, noted that just as the national team demonstrated discipline, strategy, and teamwork to win the championship, health leaders needed those same qualities to eliminate malaria.

Dr. Ben Ngoye, Principal Investigator of the ELEMMINATE project from Strathmore University Business School, opened the training by challenging a fundamental assumption. He asked participants what defined leadership. The expected answers came quickly: authority, position, hierarchy. Then he pushed back. Leadership, he argued, was about influence and the ability to inspire change, regardless of title. The room went quiet. For many participants who had spent years climbing organizational ladders, this was a different framework entirely. The subsequent discussion revealed how often health workers waited for permission from above to solve problems they could see clearly at ground level.

The three-day training covered leadership fundamentals, systems thinking, and the practical realities of malaria control in Senegal. Dr. Kaly Standeur Nabi, Head of the National Malaria Control Programme’s Training, Care and Prevention Office, presented the country’s malaria strategy without hiding the difficulties. He outlined challenges including recurrent health worker strikes that disrupted surveillance, insufficient domestic financing, and the persistent gap between national policies and community-level implementation. His message was direct: these were Senegalese problems that required Senegalese solutions, designed by people who understood the local context.

Professor Gilbert Kokwaro, Director of the Institute of Healthcare Management at Strathmore, introduced a different lens for viewing health spending. Rather than treating health as a cost, he presented it as an investment in productivity, social stability, and economic growth. When a leader mobilizes multiple sectors around a health vision, he explained, they are building infrastructure for development. Participants discussed how to apply systems thinking to malaria programming, accounting for political transitions, socio-cultural realities, environmental factors, and economic constraints. The ‘One Health’ approach was introduced, connecting human health to animal and environmental health in ways that made sense for communities that had always understood these links intuitively.

The training used the Clarity 4D psychometric tool to help participants understand their leadership styles. The framework moved through three stages: leading self through self-awareness, leading teams through trust and empowerment, and leading institutions through strategic thinking. Participants identified priority challenges in their own districts and health facilities to form the basis of Institutional Improvement Projects. Each participant was allocated four individual coaching sessions and three rounds of group coaching to support implementation. The training made clear that leadership development was not a one-time event but an ongoing process that would continue through virtual modules and coaching over the coming months.

One of the most effective sessions came from Mame Diarra Diallo, an alumna from the first cohort, who presented her completed Institutional Improvement Project. She had worked on strengthening community health committee engagement in her district, which resulted in improved coordination, increased community participation, and more sustainable malaria interventions. Her presentation included specific metrics, challenges encountered, and strategies that worked. For the new cohort, this was proof that the concepts being taught could translate into measurable change. Several participants immediately began discussing how to adapt her approach to their own contexts.

The networking cocktail on the evening of January 20 brought together alumni from the senior leaders and the current mid-level leaders. The informal setting allowed for frank conversations about what worked in the field versus what looked good on paper. Senior leaders discussed plans to mentor the new cohort after they completed their training. Cross-border connections began forming as participants exchanged contact information and discussed shared challenges across regions. What had started as a training programme was developing into a network of health leaders across francophone West Africa.

The ELEMMINATE’s Project LMG programme represents a shift in how capacity building is approached in Africa. Delivered by Strathmore University Business School, it has trained over 400 health leaders across 12 African countries. The model targets both national and subnational leaders, recognizing that malaria elimination requires leadership capacity at multiple levels. The programme includes virtual modules, in-person training, individual and group coaching, and requires participants to implement practical improvement projects in their institutions. The curriculum addresses gaps in leadership, management, and governance that have long hampered health systems, but does so through an African institution using frameworks adapted to African contexts.

The presence of senior government officials at both the opening and closing ceremonies demonstrated national ownership of the programme. Local media coverage extended the reach beyond the conference room. Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall, Chief Executive Officer of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, emphasized that sustained capacity building was a long-term national priority, not a short-term project. The strategic alignment meeting on January 22 between Strathmore leadership, the NMCP Coordinator Professor Aliou Thiongane, and the PNLP technical team focused on coordination mechanisms and institutional engagement to ensure the programme’s impact would last beyond the training period.

Similar trainings have been conducted across Mali, Ghana, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, each adapted to local contexts while maintaining core principles. The programme’s premise is straightforward: Africa has the intellectual capacity and institutional capability to solve its own health challenges when local leaders are given appropriate tools, frameworks, and support. The victory Senegal celebrated during that January week was on the football pitch. But in a conference room at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, a different kind of preparation for victory was underway—one measured not in goals scored but in malaria cases prevented, health systems strengthened, and leaders equipped to build better health outcomes for their communities.

Article by: Judith A. Amolo