By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Health experts from the 15 countries in West Africa gathered in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city on Thursday for the official launch of the Strengthening of Human Resources in Public Health Project (RHSP).
Prompt News reports that the launch of the Project at the Abuja Continental Hotel on Thursday has become necessary as West Africa is marked by recurrent outbreaks of infectious diseases, which have a devastating socio-economic impact on people’s well-being.
Also, the harmful consequences of health crises mean that they need to be detected early, prevented and responded to promptly and effectively, despite the shortcomings of national health systems.
According to WAHO, as part of its efforts to build public health capacity, Expertise France, with funding from the Agence Française de Développement, has been supporting the implementation of a project entitled “Strengthening Public Health Human Resources through a One Health and Gender-Sensitive Approach” in the French-speaking ECOWAS countries since March 2023.
This 4-year project aims to reduce gender inequalities and mortality in the face of health crises in French-speaking ECOWAS countries by 2030.
It was also gathered that taking gender issues into account is one of the project’s main objectives. The project’s objectives are broken down into two specific components as follows:
1) Establishment of robust and resilient RHSP development policies in West Africa that meet the needs of sub-regional organisations and French-speaking ECOWAS countries in terms of ISS / One Health / Gender.
2) Improving training provision for public health actors in the French-speaking ECOWAS region in IHS/One Health/Gender in line with WHO quality standards through increased support for the NPHIs in the target countries. The project is scheduled to last 48 months.
However, in order to improve ownership of the project by the regional health organisations, the beneficiary countries and the TFPs working in the field of PHRH, Expertise France launched an in-depth diagnosis which enabled the project to be adapted to the needs of the beneficiaries. The in-depth diagnosis led to recommendations and guidelines. It also enabled the scope of implementation to be limited to 3 French-speaking countries in the Gulf of Guinea, namely Benin, Guinea and Togo.
The project, which will be implemented under the auspices of WAHO, planned to hold a launch ceremony on May 16, 2024 on the sidelines of the Assembly of Ministers of Health and a technical meeting to launch the regional project from 20 to 21 May 2024, co-chaired by the Director General of WAHO and the Director of AFD Abuja.
The general objective of the launch is to inform, exchange and communicate with the main players in the health safety ecosystem on the challenges in terms of Public Health Human Resources at regional level and in the 3 partner countries, with a view to having a shared vision of the expected results of the project, giving visibility to the project and allowing real ownership by the various partners, and finally ensuring its institutional anchoring.
More specifically, this involves :
-Share the results of the in-depth diagnosis of the region’s PHHR issues.
-Share the project’s main objectives and strategic directions;
-Publicise the main operational priorities of the RHSP project to the partners, with a view to ensuring ownership and better coordination;
-Communicate with all the players in the system on the mutual expectations of the project (feedback and inputs on the RHSP project, lessons learned from other projects, recommendations, etc.) to improve synergy of action.
WAHO said that the expected results of the Project are as follows:
-The project’s main objectives are shared with the key partners.
-The project’s operational priorities are presented, understood and appropriated by the partners and other TFPs working on RHSP and One Health issues;
-The project’s expectations are shared with the partners to ensure synergy of action;
-Relevant recommendations are made;
-The project will be known and visible in the public health ecosystem.
This event brought together political, institutional and diplomatic players (the Ministries of Health of the three intervention countries (Benin, Guinea, Togo), the INSPs, the AFD Agency in Abuja and the French Embassy in Nigeria, the CRSM, WAHO, the Abuja RCC A.CDC, the CRSA), the PTFs (WHO Africa, GIZ, CDC Atlanta Nigeria, training institutes).
Also at the launch in Abuja are the Ministries of Health of the three intervention countries (Benin, Guinea, Togo) just as each country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) nominated two participants, including the project’s designated focal point
Speakers at the launch yesterday include Jean-Francoois HASPERUE, Charge d’Affaires, French Embassy Abuja who said that he: “I am very pleased to officially launch the project Human Resources in Public Health financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and implemented by Expertise France in close partnership with the West African Health Organization (WAHO).
Said he: “As we are all aware, the COVID-19 pandemic shed a brutal light on the weaknesses caused by the lack of investments in health systems. There is a crucial need d to support the development of resilient health systems, able to anticipate, prepare and respond to public health emergencies. This is one of the priorities of France as stated in its new Global Health Strategy that was disclosed in October last year”.
He also said the COVID crisis also demonstrated that strengthening health systems alone will not be enough to fight emerging health threats, pointing out that “Indeed, a “One Health” Approach, taking into account the interrelations between the health of people, animals and the Planet ecosystems, is needed.
The Charge d’Affaires revealed that “France is aiming to support the building of strong national and regional public health institutions able to prevent and manage current and future health threats. As you all know, threats linked to environmental degradation (climate change, biodiversity loss, microbial resistance, pollutions etc.) affect all countries in the world with a rising frequency and severity. We not only need to build resilient health systems but also strong “systems for health”.
He revealed that this project is also a new step in France’s partnership with ECOWAS and its specialized agency: the West African Health Organization.
Other Speakers are Xavier MURON, Country Director Nigeria, Agence Francaise De Development (ADF) who said “The COVID-19 pandemic shed a brutal light on the weaknesses caused by the lack of investments in health systems. There is a crucial need to support the development of resilient health systems, able to anticipate, prepare and respond to public health emergencies.”
Dr. Aissi Melchior Athanase, Director-General, West African Health Organisation (WAHO) said the launch of the Project could not have come at a better time than now just as Madam Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, Vice President, ECOWAS Commission who gave insight into the programme after the launch, explained that it is meant to help to build capacity, defend health sector, train health practitioners, to minimize brain drain in medical sector, among other interventions.
She said as a starting phase, it involves three states of Benin, Togo and Guinea out of the 15-member states of the ECOWAS states, adding that it would be extended to other member states depending on extent of mobilisation of funds.
According to her, “It is very important to the West African countries as you know that it is being implemented by the West African health implementation, WAHO in collaboration with our partners, the French Agency for development. It is significant because it is strategically to help build capacity in the health sector and to help us to retrain our health personnel within our region.
“The project is starting first with three countries: Benin, Togo and Guinea as the first three countries that will be benefiting from this financing and it is billed for a period of four years and it is 4.5 million Euros annually over the four years period.
“You know our Commission is made up of 15-member states, you have to start somewhere as you cannot do all countries at once. This is the first countries we are starting with and we are also calling on other partners to join us in order to help boast this project so that we can extend it to other members states as well.
“The next stage will depend on the finance we have been able to secure in order to expand the project to other members states.
“It is to reinforce our capacity, defend our health sector, it will train practitioners because we have brain drain of our health practitioners as you can see that a lot of our youths we have invested so much in acquiring education in the health sector tend to leave and move on to more developed countries like US, Canada and various countries in Europe. READ ALSO:
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“So, this is to mobilise them within our countries and help to improve our health sector in various countries in region.”
She congratulated Dr. Melckjor Athanase AÏSSI, Director General of WAHO for this laudable initiative aimed at supporting member States in their efforts to face the numerous challenges in health matters.
She recalled that the EBOLA epidemic which wreaked havoc mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of ECOWAS member states health structures.
“It was following the Ebola epidemic that ECOWAS decided to opt for a thematic approach in its early ECOWARN mechanism which includes health with a focus on not only epidemics, pandemics but also our health infrastructures in member states.
“It goes without saying that any initiative aimed at strengthening the capacities of health personnel in our States should be strongly encouraged. Sustainable economic and social progress is only possible with well-developed human capital.”
