Niël Terblanché
Namibia became one of 12 countries in Africa that have embarked on an ambitious initiative aimed at strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response, Disease Surveillance by signing a Memorandum of Agreement with the World Health Organisation.
The new MoA will increase Namibia’s capacity to manage and reinforce the prepare–detect–respond phases of future public health emergencies.
At the same time, the WHO made more than N$50 million available to assist with funding for the initiative.
While officiating at the signing ceremony the Minister of Health and Social Services, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, said the initiative is designed to build capacities in areas of response readiness and coordination, disease surveillance, risk communication, community engagement, operations and logistics support.
“The initiatives that Namibia will implement will also further strengthen the global architecture of preparedness and response to health emergencies. The Emergency Preparedness and Response Flagship Initiatives aim to promote health security in Africa, through strengthening member state’s capacity to prepare, to timely detect, and to promptly respond to public health threats and emergencies,” Shangula said.
The flagship initiative will Promote the Resilience of Systems for Emergencies (PROSE) and will focus on preparedness ensuring member states have a resilient health system that will help prevent, predict, detect and enable a prompt and effective response to any public health emergencies or hazards.
It is further aimed at Transforming African Surveillance Systems (TASS) which aims to coordinate and strengthen detection and reinvigorate stronger integrated surveillance systems and actions to prevent or respond to outbreaks.
The initiative also intends to strengthen and utilize Response Groups for Emergencies (SURGE) which will eventually fast-track capacity building and training to obtain the services of 3 00 African Health Volunteers Corps (AVHOC ready to be deployed in 24 hours in response to health emergencies.
Namibia being one of the 12 countries earmarked for the first phase of the EPR Flagship Initiative implementation in Africa underwent a scoping process from 29 August to 2 September 2022.
The scoping mission helped to sensitise the government and other key stakeholders on the SURGE and TASS initiatives. The mission also determined the extent of the national workforce capacity for an emergency response which included the government and partner-supported human resources to identify gaps and develop an implementation roadmap for the initiative.
According to the WHO, one of the key components of the initiative is for member states to have a database of surge staff trained in emergency management that is ready for deployment at any time to respond to public health events inside the country as well as the rest of the continent.
The initiative is intended to serve as a catalyst for the implementation of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS). It also aims to ensure the availability of adequate funds for preparedness, detection and response efforts through resource mobilisation.
Shangula said that the initiative will build on existing infrastructure and inroads made in public health emergency management during the pandemic. The health minister indicated that the implementation of activities under the initiative, particularly in the area of workforce development, has already commenced already. “This includes the successful training of 50 surge staff between November 2022 and March 2023. Surge teams have been trained together with Rapid Response Teams (RRT) and the Medical Emergency Teams (EMT) have been established. They are well-trained and stand ready to be deployed and provide high-quality health emergency response within and beyond the borders of the Republic of Namibia,” Shangula said.
Besides making funds available for the implementation of the initiative the WHO also donated eight 4×4 multipurpose vehicles which could be used to respond to emergencies or even ambulances.
The health minister said that the new vehicles will enable health officials to access hard-to-reach areas and facilitate an efficient response where health services are needed.
