Africa CDC and African Union Member States have moved closer to establishing a harmonised Behavioural Intelligence and Infodemic Management framework aimed at strengthening evidence-based public health decisions across the continent.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in collaboration with African Union Member States, regional institutions and technical partners, has advanced plans for a continental framework on Behavioural Intelligence and Infodemic Management (BIIM).
The initiative is designed to strengthen the use of behavioural, social, community and information-environment evidence in public health decision-making and interventions across Africa.
The development followed a technical workshop held in Mombasa, Kenya, from August 30 to September 3, 2026, where public health experts reviewed and validated key components of the emerging Continental BIIM package.
Participants examined the BIIM Framework, Strategy, Digital and Data Architecture, as well as a roadmap for its institutionalisation and implementation across Member States.
Representatives from Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe participated in the meeting alongside the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control, the World Health Organisation’s Africa Infodemic Response Alliance and other partners.
Turning health data into actionable intelligence
According to Africa CDC, BIIM is being developed as a public health intelligence capability that will enable countries to systematically integrate different sources of evidence and translate them into actionable information.
These sources include behavioural and social data, community feedback, social listening, service-delivery and programme data, information-environment signals and rapid research.
The continental approach is guided by the principle that BIIM will be Member State-owned, Africa CDC-stewarded, partner-supported and funder-enabled, with emphasis on transforming intelligence into action.
Africa CDC noted that African public health systems already generate significant amounts of behavioural, community and programme data, but such information is often fragmented across institutions and programmes.
BIIM is therefore not intended to create another database or parallel reporting platform. Instead, it will connect and strengthen existing national systems while establishing common standards for governance, quality, interoperability and shared learning.
Kenya’s Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mary Muthoni Muriuki, said the framework would strengthen existing national capabilities rather than create parallel structures.
“BIIM is not another platform or parallel system. It strengthens and connects existing national capabilities,” Muriuki said.
She added that behavioural, social and community intelligence should become an integral part of existing public health systems used to understand challenges and respond to the needs of populations.
Muriuki also agreed to champion the BIIM initiative across Africa to strengthen political engagement and Member State leadership.
From information to public health action
A major focus of the Mombasa meeting was ensuring that behavioural and social information collected by countries translates into concrete public health decisions.
Under the proposed model, information from community concerns, rumours, surveys, service-delivery challenges or social media trends would be verified, combined with other evidence and analysed before being transformed into recommendations for policymakers.
Africa CDC said the framework could support emergency preparedness and response, immunisation, primary healthcare, community trust, service uptake and other priority health interventions.
Dr Lul Pout Riek, Special Representative of the Director General for Africa CDC’s Eastern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre, said institutionalising the framework would be critical to its success.
“The technical architecture is important, but institutionalisation is the real test,” Riek said.
He stressed that behavioural intelligence must become part of how public health institutions routinely assess risks, make decisions and take action.
Member States to retain ownership
Africa CDC said the emerging framework would operate through a federated rather than centralised system.
Under the arrangement, individual Member States would determine the institutional location, governance structure, data stewardship and implementation model for their national BIIM capabilities.
Africa CDC would provide continental coordination through common standards, technical guidance, quality assurance and cross-country learning.
Head of Social and Behaviour Change and Advocacy at Africa CDC, Dr Priscilla Madzinga-Kusena, said the continent’s challenge was not necessarily a shortage of data but the difficulty of transforming fragmented evidence into actionable intelligence.
“BIIM provides that intelligence architecture, integrating and triangulating behavioural, social, community, information-environment, programme and service evidence and translating it into decision-ready intelligence,” she said.
Madzinga-Kusena added that the effectiveness of the initiative would ultimately depend on whether intelligence reaches the appropriate decision-makers, leads to action and generates lessons for future interventions.
Mauritania’s Ministry of Health representative, Ouhaida Alioune, said direct participation by Member States would ensure that the continental model reflects national realities.
She noted that while common standards would provide a shared continental direction, countries would retain flexibility in determining how BIIM is integrated into their existing public health systems.
Regional coordination, sustainable implementation
Regional institutions and technical partners are expected to support implementation through capacity building, peer learning, cross-border intelligence sharing and alignment of existing investments.
Africa CDC said the participation of ECOWAS RCSDC and WHO’s Africa Infodemic Response Alliance would help ensure that existing investments in social listening, community intelligence, digital systems and infodemic management are strengthened rather than duplicated.
Vice President of the ECOWAS RCCE Network, Patrick Lansana, described the Continental BIIM Framework as an important step towards establishing a harmonised intelligence-to-action system across Africa.
He said regional coordination must build on functional national systems while protecting Member States’ ownership of their data and operational tools.
The Mombasa workshop marks a shift from framework development towards institutionalisation and implementation.
Immediate priorities include consolidating the harmonised Continental BIIM package, supporting countries to establish national implementation pathways, identifying priority public health applications, strengthening regional coordination and aligning technical and financial assistance with country-defined needs.
The long-term goal is to establish an interconnected African public health intelligence capability rather than a single continental database or technology platform.
Under the proposed system, Member States would generate, own and use behavioural intelligence nationally while benefiting from regional coordination, common standards and continental learning.
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