From understanding harm to coordinated action
From understanding medication-related harm to coordinated action and impact.
What systems see vs what patients live
Preventing medication-related harm requires more than awareness. It requires coordinated action across regulation, healthcare delivery, medicines safety systems, patient engagement, innovation, and the safe and rational use of medicines.
Through keynote presentations, expert discussions, patient perspectives, innovation showcases, workshops and networking, participants will explore how Africa's medicines ecosystem can work together to prevent harm and improve patient safety.
Perceived Safety
What systems believe is happening.
Reported Safety
What reporting and surveillance systems capture.
Lived Safety
What patients actually experience.
Day 1 · 16 September 2026
Diagnosis — Understanding the Reality Gap
Establish a shared, honest understanding of what current systems are missing.
- 08:30 – 09:30
Opening Plenary — The Gap Between Perception and Reality
Plenary“What do we believe patient safety looks like — and what is actually happening?”
- 09:30 – 11:00
Institutional Perceptions of Safety
Session“Systems define safety by what they can record — not what patients experience.”
- 11:00 – 11:30
Networking break
- 11:30 – 13:00
Frontline Clinical Realities & Hidden Harms
Session“Most safety events are first seen at the bedside — and rarely reported.”
- 13:00 – 14:00
Lunch
- 14:00 – 15:30
Patient & Community Experiences
Session“Patients experience safety differently from the systems meant to protect them.”
- 16:00 – 17:30
Structural Blind Spots in Surveillance & Reporting
Session“What we see in the data is only a fraction of what is happening.”
- 17:30 – 18:00
Closing Panel — The Reality Gap
Panel
Day output: A shared understanding of medication-related harm as a system challenge, and the blind spots between perceived, reported and lived safety.
Day 2 · 17 September 2026
Transformation — Closing the Gap
Shift from diagnosis to action — designing systems that reflect reality.
- 08:30 – 10:00
Patient-Centred Regulation in Practice
Session“Embedding patient experience as core regulatory intelligence.”
- 10:30 – 12:00
Stronger Medicines Safety Systems
Session“Frontline-integrated pharmacovigilance with simplified, no-blame reporting.”
- 12:00 – 13:00
Lunch
- 13:00 – 14:30
From Reaction to Prevention
Session“Predictive pharmacovigilance, error-prevention design and real-time dashboards.”
- 15:00 – 16:30
Innovation, Evidence & Community Engagement
Session“Connecting safety systems across healthcare, ethically governed and sustainable.”
- 16:30 – 17:30
Collaboration & Implementation
Session“Building shared accountability and coordinated continental action.”
- 17:30 – 18:00
Closing Plenary — From Reality Gap to Transformation
Plenary“Commitments and the launch of continental implementation outputs.”
Day output: Practical implementation pathways, new partnerships, and a shared accountability framework for coordinated patient safety.
The programme framework
- 1Understand the System Challenge
- 2Align Around Solutions
- 3Accelerate Implementation
- 4Drive Coordinated Action
What the programme is designed to do
- Expose the reality gap in existing patient safety systems
- Integrate patient, community and frontline perspectives
- Strengthen patient-centred safety intelligence
- Support the transition from reactive to preventive approaches
- Build a shared framework for coordinated patient safety improvement
Summit programme features
Implementation-focused continental outputs
The Summit is designed to contribute to longer-term progress in patient safety across Africa.
Join the programme in Kigali
Together, we can move from fragmented efforts to coordinated action — and from coordinated action to measurable impact.