Scientific Days in Chad: 30 Years of Partnership in Research
The first Scientific Days of the recently founded Chadian National Public Health Institute (“Institut National de Santé Publique du Tchad, INSAPT”) in Chad took place on 25-26 August 2025 in N’Djamena. The event focused on the role of research and evidence-generation in improving population health. It offered a platform to show how long-term research partnerships built on mutual trust, drive innovations, strengthen health services and address public health issues.
Using a “One Health” approach, participants discussed a wide range of topics. These included the epidemiology and control of neglected tropical diseases, emerging zoonotic diseases, integrated human and animal disease surveillance and response, as well as digital health and clinical decision support systems such as SANU-TD (Santé numérique au Tchad).
30 years of Partnership between Swiss TPH and Chadian Institutions
The conference also highlighted well stablished and newly created national and international organizations and research institutions, with particular emphasis on more than 30 years of successful collaboration between the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) and Chadian institutions. These include the Chadian National Public Health Institute, the University of N’Djaména, the “Institut de Recherche en Élevage pour le Développement” (IRED), the “Centre de Support en Santé Internationale” (CSSI) or the “Alliance Sahélienne de Recherches Appliquées pour le Développement Durable (ASRADD)”.
Case studies illustrated joint work on human and veterinary services, rabies, schistosomiasis, fascioliasis, and citizen science. These examples not only showed the breadth of scientific publications emerging from the partnerships but also their contributions to individual and institutional capacity strengthening in Chad.
Memorandum of Understanding and Swiss support to Chad
During the conference, a new collaboration agreement was signed between INSAPT, the University of N’Djaména and Swiss TPH. A similar agreement was signed with the Veterinary and Public Health Institute at the University of Bern.
The conference was co-funded by the SDC represented by the Deputy Head of the Cooperation office Samuel Roche. Since 1964, Chad has been one of Switzerland's priority countries for development cooperation. Thanks to its long-standing presence, its close ties with the population, and its position as the second-largest bilateral donor for development cooperation, Switzerland remains a reliable partner for Chad.
Through its long-term support programme to health districts (PADS), launched in 2014, SDC funds health and operational research, including “One Health” components. It also supports cross-collaborations with its programme to strengthen pastoral livestock farming in Chad (PREPAS).
