Report on the Structural Equation Modeling Training

At the Laboratoire de Biomathématiques et d'Estimations Forestières (LABEF) in Benin, the Training on Structural Equatjon Modeling took place (17-19 December 2025).

With the support of the Sub-Saharan African Consortium for Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB) II, more than 300 young researchers from 18 African countries took part in the advanced statistical and methodological training. The first day focused on methodological principles and illustrated through case studies in agriculture, health, and environmental sciences and also ran a practical component to apply R to define latent variables using the EFA model. This session was delivered by Dr Souand Tahi (SSACAB Postdoctoral Fellow), Midokpè Merveille Essetcheou (SSACAB PhD Fellow), KANGELA MATAZI Alain (SSACAB PhD fellow) and Dr Salako.

Day 2 combined theoretical foundations with practical demonstrations in R, and participants were introduced to Structural Equation Modeling. Structural Equation Modeling allows researchers to rigorously analyse complex, real-world relationships across health, agriculture, and environmental systems therefore, this short course is of great importance to researchers.