About a week from now, approximately 25 mid-career academics, researchers, civil servants and civil society advocates will gather in Accra, Ghana to begin to shape a home-grown agenda for health policy and systems capacity strengthening in the West African region. This meeting is unique because it has been planned by and for these "new voices" working in Francophone and Anglophone West African countries.

The meeting, which will take place at the School of Public Health of the University of Ghana from 22-23 June 2015, will consider capacity strengthening from the perspective of future leaders in the field. It is part of the planning phase of the project Strengthening in-Country Health Systems Research Capacity in West Africa, a partnership between the University of Ghana, the West Africa Health Organisation, and International Development Research Centre in Canada. In addition to the "new voices", the meeting will also be attended by various other colleagues from West African research networks.

New voices: Aku Kwamie, Enyi Etiaba, Chinenye Okwuosa & Seye Abimbola

The key agenda items for the meeting include: (i) building a critical mass of West African health policy and systems academics, researchers, practitioners and advocates, including the competencies, training and mentorship opportunities they require; (ii) career paths in health policy and systems for West Africa; (iii) getting research into policy; and (iv) partners and platforms to increase voice and influence agendas.

This meeting grew out of two prior initiatives: CHEPSAA's Emerging Leaders Programme and the Emerging Voices Programme. The CHEPSAA Emerging Leaders Programme sought to build a critical mass of future leaders in health policy and systems research in Africa. The Emerging Voices Programme, an initiative of the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, seeks to empower health researchers from the Global South by providing intensive skills training and facilitating their participation in international conferences.

The following participants from these two programmes will participate in the upcoming meeting in Ghana:

• University of Nigeria: Enyi Etiaba & Chinenye Okwuosa
• University of Ghana: Kojo Anniah, Genevieve Aryeetey, Aku Kwamie & Roger Atinga
• Ministry of Health, Ghana: Augustina Koduah & Joe Dodoo
• University for Development Studies: Gilbert Abiiro
• University Felix Houphouet Boigny: Juliana Gnamon
• Université de Liege: Sedjro Dieudonne Eclou
• Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie: Jean-Paul Dossou
• Institut de Recherche en Science de la Santé: Fadima Bocoum & Kadio Kadidiatou
• National Primary Health Care Development Agency of Nigeria / University of Sydney: Seye Abimbola
• University of Ottawa: Nana Yaa Boadu
• Ministry of Health, Benin: Arsene Kpagnon
• National Health Insurance Scheme of Nigeria: Abu Kurfi