Project profile — Strengthening regional disease surveillance in West Africa

• South of Sahara, regional (100.00%)

• Basic health care:
Basic health care (12220) (10.00%)
Infectious disease control (12250) (75.00%)
Health personnel development (12281) (15.00%)

• Gender equality (significant objective)
• Environmental sustainability (cross-cutting) (not targeted)
• Participatory development and good governance (not targeted)
• Trade development (not targeted)
• Biodiversity (not targeted)
• Climate change mitigation (not targeted)
• Climate Change Adaptation (not targeted)
• Urban issues (not targeted)
• Desertification (not targeted)
• Children's issues (significant objective)
• Youth Issues (not targeted)
• Indigenous Issues (not targeted)
• Disability (not targeted)
• ICT as a tool for development (not targeted)

This project aims to strengthen the ability of West African countries to ensure regional disease surveillance and response. It supports the West Africa Regional Disease Surveillance Capacity Strengthening Project managed by the World Bank, and coordinated and implemented by the West Africa Health Organization (WAHO). Disease outbreaks within the West African region are frequent and can have a particularly heavy impact on the countries’ economies and human development. As epidemics do not respect national boundaries, a high level of inter-country regional collaboration and information sharing is required to be effectively prepared for potential epidemics, such as Ebola, or to be able to prevent them from reoccurring. Project activities include: (1) establishing centres of disease surveillance at the local level that are able to detect and report on diseases; (2) undertaking regional simulation exercises for outbreak responses and (3) training women and men in epidemiological surveillance and control.

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: (1) strengthened national and regional disease surveillance systems within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Zone; and (2) improved effectiveness of epidemic response measures, including for the fight against Ebola in the ECOWAS Zone.

Results achieved at the end of the project (February 2024) include: (1) set-up 147 centres for epidemiological surveillance in 10 countries to build the capacity of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) member States around disease surveillance; (2) developed, launched, and distributed a toolkit on gender in infectious disease epidemic preparedness and response to representatives of ECOWAS member states; (3) established the ECOWAS Regional Vaccines Revolving Fund to generate pooled funds for COVID-19 vaccines; (4) developed an advanced Master’s level field epidemiology and laboratory training program with the University of Ghana and the University of Ouagadougou, resulting in 100 participants (37 women) graduating; and (5) developed an ECOWAS preparedness and response plan.

• Proactive disclosure