By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Stakeholders in Public Health Sector from the 16 West African countries are gathering in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja for a week-long Workshop to strengthen the capacities of countries in the Sub-region to respond effectively to major public health threats under the National Public Health Institutes (NPHI) programme.
The Workshop holding at Hilton Transcorp, Abuja from Monday, March 11 to Thursday, March, 2024 is being attended by stakeholders made up of Directors of National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) in West Africa, representative of the African Center of Disease Control (CDC), representatives of the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC), representatives of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), representatives Technical and Financial partners, among others. They sought to strengthen existing NPHIs, as well as establish new ones across the region.
In his Goodwill Message, Dr Jide Idris, Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) charged the participants from 16 ECOWAS countries to remain focused on the objectives of the Abuja workshop which include learning from each country and be committed to the actions and strategies that will emerge from the discussions during the workshop.
Said he: “This workshop is not just a forum for a dialogue but a catalyst for tangible progress in Public Health across West Africa.
I therefore extend my heartfelt gratitude to all our stakeholders, for your dedication and commitment to Public Health. Your expertise, insights, and dedication are essential as we work towards establishing and strengthening NPHIs in West Africa.
Together, let us make this workshop a milestone event in our journey towards stronger, more resilient Public Health Institutes in West Africa”.
Speaking to journalists at the sideline of the Abuja Workshop organized by the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC), the Director General (DG), Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Idris said the gathering was very necessary and apt, intended to share strategy and to proffer solutions to challenges of health security in West Africa.
Said he: “This workshop is strategic collaboration between health organizations, such as West African Health Organizations, the African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Unite States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention(USCDC), among other partners is testament to our shared commitment to proffer solutions to public health challenges in Africa.
“The objective of this workshop is to bring together National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) across the West African sub region, to address the issue of health security.
“What do I mean by health security, it is a continuum of things, the underlying fact that every nation has a duty to protect its citizens, protect them from getting any disease. And there are many ways again either you prevent them from catching the disease, or where you do not fully succeed, you prepare them for any emergencies, you prepare them with the techniques to detect diseases or treat them if it is an epidemic, and to respond adequately across the whole country.That is what National Public Health is all about.
“This gathering is a gathering of countries in the sub-regions to share experiences that some countries. There are some countries that have fully established institutes, some in the process of establishing, some not fully established and some who have not started at all. The idea of this gathering is to share knowledge among those who have established, those who are in the process of establishing and those who have not.
“It is to share the knowledge of the processes and how they went about it, the challenges we have faced so that those of them who have not, so that they can go back again and develop such capabilities. And at the same time share lessons from people’s different experiences, to enrich different countries from the experiences of other countries, so that they can be able to tackle health security challenges in the West Africa Sub-region.”
On what the benefit of the gathering would be to Nigeria, Idris said,”To Nigeria, we are fully established, we can still develop and upgrade our systems.But again, still understand that the other countries depending on their peculiarities to understand how they do it. They can also understand from us how we do it, what challenges we have faced.
“And you know we have faced common challenges, we have conflicts, we have diseases, remember, some time ago you had Ebola, we have COVID, in this country we are having Lassa fever, meningitis, and so many things.How we are coping with them, we will share knowledge, we will experiences with our partners who have better experiences like CDC in USA.They can actually enlighten us how best to go about some of these in case we do have problems”.
In his goodwill message, the Director General of the West African Health Organization, WAHO, Melchior Athanese represented by Aisha Bukola Usman noted that the gathering was a testament to their collective commitment to advancing public health in the West African region.
“Today’s gathering is a testament to our collective commitment to advancing public health in the West African region. The objectives outlined for this meeting are both comprehensive and pivotal in addressing the evolving landscape of public health, fostering collaboration, and driving positive change within our communities.
“The sharing of best practices and lessons learned from established NPHIs in the region is a valuable opportunity for mutual learning and growth. It reflects the spirit of cooperation and knowledge exchange that defines our collective pursuit of excellence in public health initiatives.
“By engaging in open discussions, we have the chance to fortify our existing foundations and identify innovative approaches to address current and anticipated challenges faced by countries in the development of NPHIs.”
He added,”Crucially, the discussions will also center around actions needed to accelerate the establishment and strengthening of NPHIs in West Africa. As leaders in public health, your insights and experiences will play a pivotal role in shaping the future trajectory of NPHI development in our region.
“Furthermore, exploring the roles of WAHO, Africa CDC, and other strategic partners in supporting this acceleration will foster a collaborative environment, ensuring that our shared goals are met with unified efforts.
“The participants here today, comprised of Directors of NPHIs, leaders, Subject matter experts, focal points from existing NPHIs, senior officials from Ministries of Health, and technical and financial partners, represent a diverse and knowledgeable assembly. Together, we can harness this diversity to formulate comprehensive strategies that will pave the way for the effective functioning of NPHIs throughout West Africa and beyond.
“I am particularly grateful to Nigeria CDC DG for accepting to co-host this event and allowing our field visit in his headquarters. I believe this will provide us a more pragmatic ways to review routine NPHI operations and advance our deliberations.
“As we embark on this journey of shared learning, collaboration, and strategic planning, let us seize the opportunity to strengthen our regional public health infrastructure and contribute to the well-being of our communities.”
Director General of WAHO reiterated his gratitude to all partners, US CDC, IANPHI, Africa CDC, USAID, UKHSA, GIZ, USAID, WHO, AFENET, RTSL and others and optimistic of fruitful discussions and outcomes that will undoubtedly emerge from this meeting.
On his part, Dr Raji Tajudeen, Head, Division of Public Health Institute and Research, the Africa Center for Disease Control (CDC) said,”So this program that we have started today and is going to last four days is about establishment and strengthening of national public health institutions across the 15 member states within the West Africa region.
“We looked at the different outbreak that have happened in the continent, especially in the region and see what exactly was going to be the best approach to respond to disease outbreak.We realized that the countries that have National Public Health Institute, like Nigeria, CDC, were able to do better, respond better to disease outbreak that those countries that did not have any. So, from there we decided that one of our key agenda will be to support each and every member state on the continent to establish national publica institutes, for those who already have support them to strengthen those national public health institutes.
“In terms of advantages, many a times when there is disease outbreak, it takes time for us to detect, it also takes time to respond. Infact it takes much much longer time to rebuild back better, stronger and bolder. But with NPHI and from the experience of those who have NPHI we discovered that that decision delivery time tend to be faster, in terms of utilization of resources it tend to be better. And in terms of rebuilding back using that memory, that experience from those outbreaks, it tends to better when you have outbreaks.
“This is why it is actually good to have NPHI, even when you at in terms of the management of the different partners, because whenever there is any outbreak, you see a lot of partners pour in. So in terms of effectively and efficiently managing those partners, when you have NPHI in place is a lot better than when you don’t have those NPHI,” Dr Tajudeen said.
Also, Hellen Whitney of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI), a global network of public health Institutes from around the world, expressed optimism that at the end the workshop member states of the West Africa region would be equiped with a better understanding of the challenges for establishing and strengthening national public health institutes, learning from their peers who have successfully established a Public Health Institute.
“The end of this workshop, I hope that the member states of the West Africa region walk away with a better understanding of the challenges and facilitators for establishing and strengthening national public health institutes, learning from their peers who have successfully established a Public Health Institute and learning how to build and strengthen their own within their own country context,”she said. READ ALSO:
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Meanwhile, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike, Director, Public Health, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said,”This gathering is to invite directors of public health across the West African sub region for them to brainstorm, share ideas, share challenges, and able to discuss on the way forward towards solving them.
“Is expected that at the end of this meeting, we would have learned from each other, we would have talked together, and would proffered solutions towards securing the lives of people in the West Africa region, and in Africa in general.”
On delays in response to disease outbreaks Dr Anyaike said,”To measure how swift, because we are having a multi-sectoral approach to health issues. So you need to gather every person, technical people, the funds, of course, you have to walk on existing framework. So I don’t think delays is a major problem. It is not even in Nigeria, it cuts across every human endeavor and even outside this country.
“So we have called this meeting for us to interact with other countries, other public health institutions in the Sub-Africa region for us to find a way because every country has its own peculiarities.
“But the bottom line is that any disease somewhere exists for every part of this world. We need to work together, the underlined word is collaboration and sharing of knowledge”.
The Workshop which some of its objectives include:
1. Share lessons learned from established National Public Health Institutes (NPHI) and those working to establish an NPHI in West Africa
2. Explore challenges and bottlenecks for the establishment of NPHIs
3. Share strategies and recommendations to overcome the challenges to establish NPHIs will end on Thursday with a tour of NCDC in Abuja and later return to Transcorp Hilton to wrap up the event by undertaking the review of the workshop.
