From a child-friendly deworming pill to a simpler treatment for a deadly brain infection, EDCTP-funded trials have changed WHO recommendations. Now Global Health EDCTP3 is putting that experience into practice in the Global Clinical Trials Forum (GCTF), the WHO network turning global trial standards into everyday practice.
Global Health EDCTP3 joined the GCTF in June 2026. Managed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the GCTF brings together governments, regulators, ethics authorities, funders, researchers, civil society and patient and community organisations to strengthen clinical trial systems at national, regional and global levels. Its members work to implement the WHO Guidance for Best Practices for Clinical Trials and the Global Action Plan for Clinical Trial Ecosystem Strengthening.
Strengthening trials so patients and healthy people benefit sooner
‘Our work is fundamentally about people’, says Dr Michael Makanga, Executive Director of Global Health EDCTP3. ‘Through the GCTF, we aim to help every country build the clinical trial capacity needed to deliver early diagnoses, better treatments, and vital health protections for their people.’
The membership builds on a long-standing engagement with the GCTF's agenda. The regional consultations that informed the WHO guidance were funded through the second EDCTP programme, and in 2025 Global Health EDCTP3 endorsed the Joint Statement on Strengthening Clinical Trials alongside other leading research funders. Joining the GCTF is the next step in that commitment.
Two decades of building and strengthening trial ecosystems
Global Health EDCTP3 brings to the GCTF the experience of the wider EDCTP partnership, which since 2003 has invested approximately €1.5 billion in international clinical research and supported more than 600 clinical studies, each involving at least one sub-Saharan African and one European country.
That experience runs through every layer of the trial ecosystem. The EDCTP programmes have supported regulatory and ethics capacity in 37 African countries, established and sustained support for regional and continental networks of excellence for clinical research and epidemic preparedness, and supported the creation of the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry, the first WHO-recognised primary clinical trials registry in Africa. On the human side, EDCTP funding has enabled more than 300 fellowship programmes and 2,000 traineeships for researchers in sub-Saharan Africa.
Sharing lessons, learning from others
'Joining the Global Clinical Trials Forum is a natural step for us. Over the past two decades, our partnership has heavily invested in establishing and strengthening clinical trial networks, registries, and ethics and regulatory capacity that make good clinical research possible in sub-Saharan Africa,' says Dr Makanga. 'The GCTF gives us a place to share that experience, learn from others and turn shared standards into everyday practice.'
As a member, Global Health EDCTP3 will collaborate with experts across regions and sectors, contribute to the GCTF's initiatives, and help shape the development of clinical trial systems worldwide, always with a focus on the populations and diseases that global research too often overlooks.
A new project to put the action plan into practice
Membership comes with concrete plans. Global Health EDCTP3 is in the process of funding a new project to expand the EDCTP Knowledge Hub, hosted by The Global Health Network, whose platform connects a global community of more than one million researchers. The project, to be launched soon, will give research teams across sub-Saharan Africa practical tools and training to run trials to the highest international standards.
It will support community engagement in research, help under-served populations access clinical trials, provide training on the WHO trial guidelines, enable African research centres to act as their own sponsors, and connect knowledge across programmes: a direct and measurable way to put the Global Action Plan into practice. Stronger clinical trial systems mean more impactful results that reach patients and healthy people faster: a friendlier pill for a child, a simpler treatment for a life-threatening infection, a safe and effective vaccine to prevent childhood infection, and evidence that health systems can trust.
Read more
WHO: Global Clinical Trials Forum
Global Health EDCTP3 supports global clinical trial strengthening initiative (September 2025)
WHO Global Action Plan for Clinical Trial Ecosystem Strengthening
- Publication date
- 22 July 2026
- Author
- Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking