NIHR Global Health Research Centres 1: Non-communicable Disease control in West Africa (Stop-NCD) A UK and low-and-middle-income-country (LMIC) partnership that aims to contribute to improved health of populations in West Africa by strengthening capacity for high-quality research and developing and implementing contextually adapted packages of interventions for prevention, diagnosis and management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) at community and primary care levels The partnership involves two joint lead organisations - Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and three partners namely Ashesi University, Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (LASDEL) and Université Catholique de l'Afrique de l'Ouest - Unité Universitaire at Bobo-Dioulasso (UCAOUUB) Between October 2022 and September 2027, we will work in three West African countries namely Ghana, Burkina Faso and Niger with varying ethnic-socio-cultural-economic environments to develop, implement and evaluate ways of improving control of hypertension, diabetes and mental health conditions related to chronic illness such as stress, anxiety and depression. We will start by analysing the roles of key stakeholders (patients and communities, health workers, managers, policymakers) in the development, provision, and use of NCD policies, programmes and services in each country, using appropriate methods such as analysis of available data, observations and interviews. Working closely with those stakeholders, we will co-produce packages of interventions for improving NCD control. This package will include adapting international guidelines to local contexts and supporting healthcare workers in implementing these, and establishing a community-based prevention, early-detection and management of NCDs. We will implement and rigorously evaluate the interventions packages for their costs and effectiveness, assess their potential for wide-scale application, and will identify transferable lessons for improving NCD control beyond these three countries Throughout our work, we will: (a) firstly strengthen individual skills and expertise, organisational systems and processes and system-wide networking capabilities and leadership of researchers to conduct high-quality research, secondly local communities to engage with, and understand, how to enable healthy lifestyles and thirdly, policymakers and practitioners to use evidence-informed interventions. (b) engage with key stakeholders i.e. patients, health workers, managers for consulting on their views, preferences and expectations, sharing results as they emerge and facilitating uptake of research results into their decisions and practices; and (c) maintain equitable national and international partnerships, through shared leadership involving both senior and earlier-career staff, and equally distributed management responsibilities. We will share research results with different audiences, through easyto-understand leaflets, briefs, audio-visual materials, adapted guidelines, policy dialogues, academic publications and conference presentations. The Centre’s goal is to contribute to improved health of West African populations through comprehensive and sustainable capacity strengthening for high-quality applied research and through developing and implementing contextually adapted packages of interventions for prevention, diagnosis and management of hypertension, diabetes and related common mental disorders such as anxiety, stress and depression. Our ambition is to leave a legacy of person-centred, integrated (not disease-specific) and system-wide (combining staff, structures, resources at multiple levels) responses to inter-connected NCDs at community and primary care levels, through African-led research by high-calibre scholars embedded within supportive institutions, networks and policy environments. This will all ultimately contribute to the reduction in premature mortality from NCDs, to improved health, wellbeing and socio-economic gains. Specific objectives are to: 1. Deepen understanding of contextual influences and effective pathways to prevention, diagnosis and management of NCDs in West Africa. 2. Co-produce with key stakeholders, contextually adapted packages of interventions for prevention, diagnosis and management of NCDs at community and primary care levels; and conduct formative process evaluation. 3. Implement the intervention package through existing health systems in each country, and evaluate its feasibility, acceptability, clinical effects, equitable reach and cost-effectiveness. 4. Comprehensively and sustainably strengthen capacities of researchers, communities and decision-makers, for high-quality applied NCD research and its uptake. 5. Ensure effective research communication and uptake into policies and practices of patients, communities, service providers, and national/West African decision-makers. 6. Continuously engage with key stakeholders at community, subnational, national levels within each country and within West Africa. 7. Establish and maintain equitable partnerships across West African and UK applicants, through shared leadership and governance arrangements.