Gaborone, 21 September 2026 — The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Botswana Medicines Regulatory Authority (BoMRA) is hosting a Good Clinical Practice (GCP) capacity building (training) workshop aimed at strengthening research and development (R&D) in medicines, vaccines, and other health products through enhancing clinical trial regulatory systems across the African continent.

The programme, organized by the AVAREF Secretariat, Vaccine Research and Innovation (VRIU), Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, brings together regulators from Eswatini, Gambia, Liberia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, and Zambia – joining BoMRA reviewers from clinical trials and pharmacovigilance. The workshop will focus on hands-on GCP inspection, aligned with the revised ICH E6(R3) standard adopted in 2025. This includes an on-site GCP inspection at a clinical trial site in Botswana, a first for several of the participating countries. The workshop is supported and funded by the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), Germany’s federal agency for vaccines and biomedicines.

Africa accounts for less than three per cent (3%) of global clinical trial activity, despite carrying a quarter of the world’s disease burden. Ten (10) of the continent’s fifty-five National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) have reached WHO Maturity Level 3 (ML-3), the benchmark for a functional regulatory system