ECSA-HC Launches the Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness Project in Maputo, Mozambique.

The East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Mozambique officially launched the Strengthening Pandemic Preparedness project (ECSASPP) on 11^th March 2022 at Avenida Hotel Maputo, Mozambique. The launch was attended by five Countries participating in the project namely, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia.The countries were represented by Ministry of Health senior officials from disease surveillance, laboratory, and emergence preparedness response departments.

During his inaugural speech the Director of Public Health Dr. Quinhas Fernandes who was representing the Permanent Secretary as the guest of honor, attested to the fact that the support from the World Bank towards the project, was timely. “We as a country are experiencing an outbreak of polio in one of our provinces and we were not prepared”said Dr. Fernandes.

The ECSASPP Project is a two-year grant that is supported by the World Bank entrusted to ECSA-HC to ensure regional coordination focusing on Countries in Southern Africa to build a robust responsive mechanism that can respond to pandemics. This is since Africa has one of the weakest health systems globally and yet there is limited evidence on how the region is prepared for, impacted by and respond to pandemics such as the COVID-19 which has overwhelmed its health systems. The project shall focus on three key interventions that shall ensure that Countries are equipped with the required capacities which are strengthening surveillance systems Preparation for health emergencies and rolling out innovations to enhance preparedness.
Prior to the project Launch which was done on the11th of March 2022 a two-day planning meeting with Country technical teams was conducted. The key objectives of the meeting were to orient the country teams on the origin, status, and expectations of the project, reviewing the planned and approved activities, timelines, and budgets, and discussing the modalities and priority needs of technical assistance during the project implementation.