From the Congress
Endorsement of the declaration
Adopted at the inaugural All-African ECO Care Congress, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 2026
Emergency, Critical and Operative Care — a continental commitment to universal health coverage, quality, and patient safety.
Preamble
We, participants of the inaugural All-African Emergency, Critical and Operative (ECO) Care Congress, convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 27-29 March 2026.
We include representatives of Ministries of Health, academic and healthcare institutions, professional societies, research networks, and international partners.
Recognising the growing burden of critical illness, surgical conditions, and emergency care needs across Africa, and the persistent inequities in access, quality, and patient safety.
Reaffirming our commitment, as Member States and partners aligned with the World Health Organisation, to strengthen integrated emergency, critical, and operative care systems in line with World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 78.2.
Drawing on evidence from continental and global initiatives, including African surgical and critical illness outcome studies, demonstrating preventable mortality.
Acknowledging progress in expanding services and strengthening systems, while recognising that fragmentation, limited use of patient-level data, and variability in care quality continue to affect outcomes.
Core Principles
Access to timely, safe, and high-quality ECO care is fundamental to universal health coverage.
Quality and patient safety must be central to all health system strengthening efforts.
Data must be used to drive continuous learning, improvement, and accountability.
Collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and countries is essential for sustainable impact.
Priority Actions
Advance coordinated delivery of emergency, critical, and operative care across all levels of the health system, ensuring continuity from first contact to definitive care.
Embed quality improvement and patient safety into routine care, including the use of standards, audits, and feedback systems to reduce preventable morbidity and mortality.
Advance implementation of EECC as a minimum standard for life-saving clinical care, alongside strengthening essential resources for ECO care (EREC), including infrastructure, workforce, and system capacity, aligned with WHO guidance.
Strengthen and integrate routine reporting systems with patient-level data platforms to enable real-time decision-making, continuous improvement, and system accountability.
Strengthen the capacity, support, and leadership of the health workforce across the ECO care continuum.
Support the development and scale-up of locally appropriate, cost-effective innovations that improve access, efficiency, and quality of care.
Enhance collaboration among governments, Africa CDC, WHO, academic institutions, and partners to align priorities and accelerate implementation.
Promote and, where possible, finance collaborative, multicountry research and implementation efforts to generate context-specific evidence and inform policy and practice.
2026–2028
Non-binding but action-oriented, we will work collectively toward:
Expanding national adoption and scale-up of EECC
Strengthening patient-level data systems and quality improvement platforms
Improving the use of data for decision-making at the facility and national levels
Advancing multicountry collaborative research initiatives
Continental Platform
We recognise this congress as the starting point of a sustained continental platform for ECO care collaboration. We commit to advancing the development of an All-African ECO Care platform, with the aim of evolving into an All-African ECO Care Institute to support research, training, innovation, and system strengthening across the continent.
This process will be collaborative, inclusive, and aligned with existing regional and global frameworks.
Conclusion
This declaration reflects the shared commitment of participants and partners engaged in the inaugural All-African ECO Care Congress and will serve as a foundation for ongoing collaboration, implementation, and accountability across the continent.
From the Congress