The SAVING Consortium held its Management Board Meeting for the second quarter of year four on the 8th and 9th of July 2024 at the Oak Plaza Hotel in Accra. This meeting offered an opportunity for the various work package leads to report on the progress of their respective work packages and to discuss the way forward for achieving the consortium’s targets.
During the meeting, representatives of the work packages provided updates on the progress of their implementation research (IR) studies. It became apparent that all the study teams were behind schedule in implementing the interventions designed for the second phase of their IR studies. Prof. Margaret Gyapong, the chair of the meeting, encouraged the study teams to intensify their efforts to ensure the completion of their studies within the project duration.
The meeting also included discussions on the consortium’s monitoring and evaluation plan, as well as the RE-AIM framework for implementation research, which will be used for evaluation purposes.
In addition to the work package leads, masters and PhD students sponsored by the consortium attended the meeting to give updates on the progress of their academic work. One of the master’s students has already graduated and is working on a manuscript from his research for publication. Another master’s student has also completed his studies but has yet to officially graduate. He has developed a manuscript ready for submission to an open-source peer-review journal. The other master’s and PhD students are rounding up their studies and will be finishing soon.
The two-day meeting concluded with a presentation of the technical and financial report for the consortium and an admonishment by the chair for work package members to participate in activities on the Community of Practice platform and also prepare to submit abstracts to the conference on public health to take place in Morocco this November. 
