Strengthening health security (Indian Ocean, Pacific and Southeast Asia)

The project aims to strengthen health security in the Indo-Pacific region by supporting the prevention, preparedness and response to epidemics in the Member States of the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and the Pacific Community (SPC) and partner countries of the ECOMORE programme in Southeast Asia.

Context

The acute health and climate threats in the Indo-Pacific region and the shared vulnerability of certain island States and territories in the area, make Indopacific a particularly relevant scale to encourage scientific and technical collaborations. The development of multidisciplinary and trans-regional networks promoting a One Health approach integrating human, animal and environmental health has become (i) a necessity to better assess the health risks to which populations are exposed, (ii) but also a real opportunity to enrich health surveillance practices while enhancing French expertise.

The project is thus fully aligned with the French strategy in global health, and in particular the priority it gives to prevention issues, preparedness and response to public health emergencies and the health consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. The project also outlines the French strategy for Indo-Pacific, which prioritizes the strengthening of cooperation in health research and the valorisation of French actors in a post-Covid context.

This project builds on the historical support that AFD has given to the establishment and strengthening of regional health surveillance networks in these different territories: Sega One Health network of the Indian Ocean Commission, Pacific Community Public Health Surveillance Network and ECOMORE program led by the Pasteur Institute in Southeast Asia.

Description

The project will support the prevention, preparedness and response to epidemics in the member states and territories of the Indian Ocean Commission and the Pacific Community, as well as partner countries of the ECOMORE programme in South-East Asia, namely Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Vietnam.

More specifically, the project will aim to: (i) strengthen the integrated approaches to human, animal and environmental health of these 3 monitoring networks; and (ii) create a framework for inter-network cooperation on the 4 work axes identified:

Laboratory: strengthen the diagnosis and quality assurance of laboratories involved in integrated monitoring;
Health/Climate: developing the consideration of climate and environmental factors in integrated monitoring;
Surveillance: strengthening the One Health approach in infectious disease surveillance strategies;
Response: strengthen One Health devices in the response to improve the response to public health emergencies.

Reducing gender inequalities in health security will be a cross-cutting objective of the project.

Impacts

The project aims to achieve the following outcomes at the end of implementation:

The national/regional reference laboratories of the 3 surveillance networks have strengthened their diagnostic capacities to improve the detection of pathogens with epidemic potential;
The early warning systems and health information systems of the 3 networks integrate climate data in order to improve the prevention and response to health crises;
The 3 surveillance networks have strengthened the integration of health, veterinary and environmental data for priority infectious diseases and initiated the integration of data for non-communicable diseases;
The 3 networks have strengthened their support to Member States in the preparation and response to epidemics and other health crises.

Download the project sheet

01/01/2024

Project start date

01/01/2028

Project end date

4 years

Duration of funding

Health and Social Protection

Sectors

Indian Ocean, Pacific and Southeast Asia

Location

Grant