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IGAD launches East and Southern Africa's health preparedness, response and resilience programme in Kenya

Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu launches the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience Programme for East and Southern Africa. Photo: X/DrWorkneh

By Mwangi Maina | Friday, May 17, 2024

It will fund initiatives including climate change adaptation and mitigation, combatting infectious disease outbreaks, and ensuring access to high-quality health supplies.

The Executive Secretary of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, Dr Workneh Gebeyehu, has emphasised that the initiation of the Health Emergency, Preparedness, Response, and Resilience (HEPRR) marks a unified effort to bolster healthcare infrastructures across member states.

The objective is to enhance the resilience of health systems and promote multisectoral preparedness and response to health emergencies in Eastern and Southern Africa.

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Dr. Gebeyehu, addressing the launch event in Nairobi on Wednesday, highlighted that the programme will play a pivotal role in addressing analogous challenges within the region.

“This Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience Programme is a testament to our collective determination to build on our experiences and lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and other outbreaks such as Cholera and Ebola, to strengthen our health systems to confront similar challenges.

“I must point out that this programme is an answer to the political Declaration adopted at the UN General Assembly in September 2023, committing all Member States to act on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) and the need for international cooperation in this regard,” he said.

The programme, spanning seven years and organised into two to three phases, aims to significantly enhance multisectoral preparedness and response to health emergencies across Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa.

Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu launches the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Resilience Programme for East and Southern Africa alongside Kenyan Min of Health CS Susan Nakhumicha. Photo: X/DrWorkneh

It will fund initiatives including climate change adaptation and mitigation, combatting infectious disease outbreaks, and ensuring access to high-quality health supplies.

The programme will also improve local capacity for vaccine and pharmaceutical manufacturing, train healthcare workers on climate change emergency preparedness and response, and improve quality control and assurance measures. The World Bank is funding the programme with $15 million (Sh 1.96 billion) for its implementation.

With a focus on the one health approach, it will strengthen multisectoral and cross-border emergency preparedness and response by financing infectious disease surveillance and response, as well as addressing public health emergencies, including those exacerbated by climate change.

The IGAD boss noted that the programme is also timely, as the region recovers from the global COVID-19 pandemic.

“The lessons learned from this unprecedented crisis did not only change the IGAD region but the entire African continent and the world.”

Dr Gebeyehu said that HEPRR is the second innovative programme after the Food Systems Resilience Programme, which also covers the East and Southern Africa Region and is supported by the World Bank.

He reiterated his commitment and that of IGAD colleagues to seeing the Health Emergency programme successful.

“We shall invest all necessary efforts to ensure its full, effective, and impactful implementation,” he added.

“Let us be the generation that builds a future where pandemics do not cripple our communities, but where we stand together, prepared and strong.”