Even as governments across the world still struggle to contain COVID-19 in 2024, other infectious pathogens have raged globally. The Clade Ib variant of Mpox, which continues to spread, especially in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, is just one of the infectious disease threats that makes GHAI’s case for resilient health systems more important than ever. The International Day of Epidemic Preparedness, celebrated on December 27, provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the progress we made this year to ensure that countries have the financial capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health emergencies. It is also an opportunity to assess the path to a future where the most vulnerable are protected from disease outbreaks.
National-level Progress
Our local partners had great success this year in establishing epidemic preparedness as a national priority. In Uganda, the government approved a sum of 57.8 billion Uganda shillings (approximately US$ 15.4 million) for epidemic preparedness in the 2024-25 fiscal year, cementing its commitment to preventing and mitigating the risk of epidemics. Following this landmark allocation for epidemic preparedness, GHAI, in collaboration with WHO, Resolve to Save Lives, Infectious Disease Institute and other partners provided technical support to the Government of Uganda to develop its second National Action Plan on Health Security (NAPHS II) to cover the period of 2024-29.The tool is used to inform the implementation and absorption of epidemic preparedness and response funds.
Uganda’s NAPHS II was launched on December 12 by the Prime Minister, Minister of Health, Ministry of Security and other ministries, departments, agencies (MDAs) and development partners. Following the launch, it is now time for the concerned MDAs to access and efficiently utilize the $15.4 million epidemic preparedness funds approved by Parliament. GHAI and its partner advocates will keep working closely with the government to ensure funds are released and utilized to improve Uganda’s epidemic preparedness activities.
Next door to Uganda, the Kenyan National Treasury confirmed the creation of two major budget lines for health security—the Public Health Epidemic Preparedness and Response and One Health budget lines. These have been included in the Government Integrated Management Information Systems (GIMIS). The National Organization of Peer Educators (NOPE), GHAI’s local partner, also organized a collaboration workshop with the Kenya National Public Health Institute to develop the first draft of the national strategic plan for health security. Key areas of focus included strategic alignment, situational analysis, stakeholder engagement, and defining a coordinated strategic response to disease outbreaks to protect lives. NOPE will continue to work closely with government leaders to ensure that financing for epidemic preparedness and response remains a priority.
Subnational-level Progress
Subnational level policy wins play an important role in building momentum for national action. Officials of Kenya’s Kericho County approved the creation of an epidemic preparedness and response budget line in the county. This critical step opens the path for dedicated epidemic preparedness and response funding.
Students of GHAI’s inaugural CSO Budget Advocacy Academy used their capstone projects to push health security financing to the forefront at the subnational level. Academy members from Professional Alliance for Development Ethiopia (PADet) organized a workshop and panel discussions, bringing together stakeholders from multiple woredas (districts) to share their experiences creating epidemic preparedness budget lines. These opportunities resulted in woreda officials making commitments to future budget allocation for epidemic preparedness and response to improve health security at the sub-national level.
The year 2024 has been one of the incredible accomplishments by GHAI’s health systems advocates to build a foundation for subnational and national epidemic preparedness systems in multiple African countries. In the coming year, government leaders must continue to collaborate with civil society to harness these wins and use funds to improve health security.
