PEN-Plus Conference in Africa Offers Virtual Participation
The second International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa, to be held July 8–10 in Abuja, encourages participation across sub-Saharan Africa—and beyond.
The first International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in April 2024, drew more than 400 participants from 52 countries. The second installment in the conference series will be a smaller, more technically focused gathering that is still expected to draw a global audience virtually.
The second International Conference on PEN-Plus in Africa (ICPPA 2025) will convene July 8–10 in Abuja, Nigeria, with virtual participation available to healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers worldwide.
The conference is being organized by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa, the NCDI Poverty Network, and the Government of Nigeria, with financial support from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
Since the inaugural conference last year, countries have made progress in implementing the PEN-Plus model and scaling up lifesaving care for people with severe NCDs. Twenty countries in the region are now at different phases of implementing PEN-Plus.
ICPPA 2025 will provide a forum for those countries to share best practices and innovative solutions to scale up PEN-Plus implementation, as well as to explore collaborative opportunities to align the PEN-Plus initiative with other existing public health programs in the region. Participants will include high-level policymakers, global and regional experts, donors, development partners, private sector representatives, civil society organization officials, and noncommunicable disease experts from Ministries of Health across the African region.
This year’s conference theme will focus on “Advancing Implementation of PEN-Plus for Severe NCDs in Africa: Technical Innovations, Operational Insights, and Scalable Solutions.” Discussions on program financing and long-term sustainability will be a key component of the agenda, and technical sessions will examine the practical realities of delivering specialized care in resource-limited settings, from training healthcare workers to managing pharmaceutical supply chains to implementing monitoring and evaluation systems.
The conference will also have a focus on the lead-up to the Fourth United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, to be held in September in New York City.
In recognition of the global implications of the innovations emerging from the conference, the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa has made virtual participation freely available. To register, visit the ICPPA 2025 website.