Strengthening West and Central Africa Regional Collaboration
The Dakar Medical Platform was established in 2023 as the first intersectional medical support mechanism jointly managed by three MSF Operational Centres (OCBA, OCG and OCP) within the Dakar Intersectional and Regional Support to Operations Office (DIRSO). Conceived in response to the increasingly complex medical-humanitarian challenges facing West and Central Africa, the Platform was designed to provide specialised technical support, strengthen regional learning and collaboration, and facilitate engagement with external actors on priority health issues.
After approximately two and a half years of implementation, the three Medical Directors commissioned this external evaluation to inform future strategic decisions and support the development of the next DIRSO Strategic Plan (2027 onwards).
The evaluation assessed the Platform’s performance between August 2023 and April 2026 across the OECD-DAC criteria of Relevance, Effectiveness, Efficiency, Coherence, Impact and Sustainability, complemented by an analysis of Future Orientations.
A mixed-methods approach was adopted, combining document review and a total of 77 individuals were contacted to participate either in interviews or in the online survey. 36 interviewed, survey responses, targeted project-level consultations and operational deployment data. A total of 56 consultation inputs were analyzed, including 36 key informant interviews, 11 referent survey responses and 9 project-level consultations.
