This week at World Health Expo (WHX) Labs Dubai 2026, ASLM’s Director of Programs, Dr. Talkmore Maruta, participated in a high-level session on Laboratory Management, where he spoke on “The Role of Laboratory Leadership in Developing Resilient Laboratory Systems and Networks for Emergency Response and One Health Security.”
In his remarks, he emphasized that resilient labs systems and networks depend on more than equipment, they require clear governance, capable leadership, trained and protected staff, reliable supply chains, quality systems, data connectivity, and regularly tested emergency plans.
“When these elements are in place,” he noted, “laboratories move from being passive service points to active pillars of early warning, rapid detection, and coordinated response.”
Central to his message was the assertion that the quality of laboratory leadership determines whether systems fail, survive, or adapt. Drawing on findings from ASLM’s 2025 study, ‘The Status of Laboratory Leadership in Africa,’ he highlighted critical gaps:
✔ The skills considered most important for laboratory management, resource management, coordination, and oversight are also among the weakest.
✔ Core leadership competencies such as strategic vision and organizational leadership remain underdeveloped across many systems.
He further referenced ASLM’s “Blueprint: Lab Leaders of the Future,” which outlines context-driven solutions across five domains, including advocacy, professionalism, core competencies, strategy, and structure. In line with the session theme, Dr. Maruta underscored the need to establish clearly mandated National Laboratory Directorates as a cornerstone of health security.
He also highlighted the Laboratory Directors’ Forum (LabDF), established by ASLM in collaboration with Africa CDC, as a continental platform for strengthening leadership and coordination. The Forum’s first call to action urges countries to establish strategically planned, adequately resourced, stand-alone Directorates of Laboratory Services within Ministries of Health, mandated to oversee all public and private diagnostic services.
Dr. Maruta reiterated the joint Africa CDC–ASLM commitment announced at the 2025 Africa CDC Laboratory Symposium to advocate for sustained domestic and regional financing for diagnostics, laboratory networks, and genomic surveillance as core components of national health security.
To build the next generation of laboratory leaders, he also spotlighted LEAD: Leadership Excellence for African Diagnostics, In collaboration with ROCHE Diagnostics a three-year public–private partnership designed to strengthen leadership capacity and expand access to quality diagnostics across Africa.
“Resilient laboratory systems and networks are not lucky, they are led.”