“Strengths in unity”: A real time evaluation of an MSF collaborative approach to a meningitis outbreak in Niger (2016)

2015 saw the first large scale Meningitis C outbreak in Africa since 1979. A number of challenges and problems had been noted in the way MSF operational sections in Niger, not least in terms of intersectional collaboration. Some lessons from the 2015 response had been captured. When, at the beginning of 2016, all OCs were getting ready again to respond, it was decided to evaluate the 2016 intervention in real-time. Significantly it was found that despite best intentions of individuals to collaborate better it will have limited impact as long as there is no strategic decision from the OCs to invest E-prep and response capacity jointly.