REMAPSEN: Building a bridge between health, environmental information and African communities

When a disease outbreak occurs or an environmental threat begins to affect communities, information can be as important as the response itself.

People need to know how a disease spreads, where to seek care and how to protect themselves. They also need clear information when pollution, unsafe sanitation, climate-related risks or the loss of biodiversity threaten their health and livelihoods.

But communicating such issues effectively remains a challenge, particularly when scientific information is complex, public trust is fragile and misinformation can spread quickly.

It is in this space that the Réseau des Médias Africains pour la Promotion de la Santé et de l’Environnement (REMAPSEN), or African Media Network for the Promotion of Health and the Environment, has built its work.

Created in 2020, the network brings together African media professionals around a common objective: strengthening public information and awareness on health and environmental issues while helping connect policymakers, technical experts and the communities they serve.

Born in the middle of a pandemic

REMAPSEN was established on June 13, 2020, during a virtual constituent general assembly held as the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading across the world.

Twenty-eight journalists from 17 countries in West and Central Africa and Madagascar participated in the meeting, which also marked the transformation of the former Réseau des Médias Africains pour la lutte contre le Sida, la Tuberculose et le Paludisme (REMASTP).

The change reflected a broader understanding of the role of media in a rapidly changing public health landscape.

COVID-19 had demonstrated how quickly uncertainty and misinformation could accompany a health emergency. At the same time, the pandemic disrupted other health programmes and highlighted the importance of maintaining communication with communities.

REMAPSEN therefore expanded its focus beyond HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to encompass wider health and environmental concerns.

From the beginning, its stated ambition was to help reduce what it described as a gap in communication between decision-makers and populations.

The network’s role is to help translate national, regional and international priorities into information that people can understand and use, while giving journalists opportunities to engage with specialists working on complex health and environmental questions.

Health and environment, two sides of the same conversation

Although health emergencies remain an important part of REMAPSEN’s work, environmental issues are embedded in its mandate.

The network’s activities have included discussions on biodiversity, nature conservation and climate change, as well as One Health, an approach that recognises the links between human, animal and environmental health. Its own activity archive lists webinars on One Health in the context of climate change and on biodiversity, alongside programmes on infectious diseases, vaccination, nutrition and other health concerns. 

This intersection is increasingly important as environmental conditions influence the health of communities.

Pollution, degraded ecosystems, inadequate sanitation and climate-related changes can affect exposure to disease and other health risks, while environmental degradation can also threaten food systems, livelihoods and access to essential resources.

For journalists, reporting on these connections requires more than simply relaying announcements. It requires understanding the science, asking questions of decision-makers and presenting technical information in a form that audiences can use.

REMAPSEN’s stated objective is therefore not only to disseminate information, but also to strengthen the capacity of journalists and media actors to cover these subjects.

Building the capacity of African media

The network says it seeks to regularly update journalists and social media actors on developments in health and the environment.

Its activities include training sessions, webinars, seminars, workshops, forums, conferences and media productions, as well as partnerships with national and international organisations.

Its early work included partnerships and awareness activities involving organisations such as the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. REMAPSEN’s first newsletter, published in 2021, also documented environmental activities and described the organisation’s objective as reducing gaps in public knowledge in the health and environmental sectors. 

Environmental reporting has remained part of that work.

In 2021, for example, the network organised a webinar on nature conservation that brought together journalists and specialists from organisations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature and UNESCO to discuss biodiversity, ecosystem protection and the role of media. 

More recently, its programme has continued to combine health and environmental perspectives, including a One Health webinar examining the challenges and prospects for Africa in the context of climate change. 

A network expanding across Africa

REMAPSEN’s geographical reach has grown since its creation.

The information provided by the organisation records 40 member countries as of December 31, 2023. By November 2025, REMAPSEN’s president referred to members represented in 43 African countries during the network’s fourth media forum on neglected tropical diseases in Benin. Other reporting in 2025 similarly described the network as having representation in more than 40 African countries.

The network now brings together media professionals from more than 40 African countries, including Rwanda, creating a continental platform for journalists covering health and environmental issues.

Its geographical ambition is continental, bringing together journalists working across different linguistic and regional contexts. That diversity matters in a region where health and environmental challenges can cross borders while public information systems, languages and media landscapes vary considerably.

The network’s headquarters are in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where the organisation was formally declared on February 15, 2021

From reporting health emergencies to explaining environmental risks

REMAPSEN’s stated mission goes beyond producing awareness messages.

The organisation says it seeks to support governments, development partners, civil society and private-sector actors in developing communication strategies around health and environmental programmes. It also advocates for greater investment in journalists’ knowledge and monitors media issues related to human rights in the health and environmental sectors.

That approach places journalists closer to the centre of public health and environmental communication.

The challenge is particularly relevant as the boundaries between the two fields become harder to separate.

A changing climate can affect disease patterns. Environmental pollution can create health risks. Biodiversity loss can alter ecosystems on which communities depend. Poor sanitation can simultaneously become an environmental and public-health problem.

For audiences, these are not separate subjects.

They are part of the same environment in which people live.

Information as part of the response

REMAPSEN’s work is built around the idea that stronger communication can help communities better understand the policies, programmes and risks affecting them.

Its activities in recent years have continued to span both sides of its mandate, from neglected tropical diseases and vaccination to biodiversity, conservation, climate change and One Health. 

Five years after its creation, the network continues to position African media as more than a channel for passing on official messages.

Its stated ambition is to equip journalists with knowledge, connect them with experts and create a stronger flow of information between institutions and the communities they serve.

In that sense, REMAPSEN’s work sits at a point where two increasingly interconnected questions meet: how can people better understand the health risks they face, and how can they better understand the environmental conditions that shape those risks?

For an African media network built around both health and environment, answering those questions remains at the heart of its mission.