Written by Judy Mbowa, Resource Mobilisation Officer
Strengthening National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs) is one of the five flagship priorities for Africa CDC. This is critical in ensuring that the Africa Union Member states strengthen their individual and collective health security.
APHF’s mandate is resource mobilisation for Africa CDC public health priorities, and this is one of the flagship priorities we are working towards. Africa CDC’s vision of functional NPHIs across the continent is that they are able to carry out key functions to deliver essential requirements which include: public health emergency management, including running effective public health emergency operational centers; surveillance and disease intelligence; public health workforce development: genomics, research & generating evidence and data and analysis.
APHF is working closely with Africa CDC to develop an investment case for the NPHIs flagship initiative. Investment cases are a tool for resourcing and advocacy to support health priorities. The use of a structured approach supports decision making and highlights the benefit for having functional NPHIs.
The impact of functional NPHIs in resources challenged countries have been seen to comprehensively address imminent public health threats by providing a central mechanism to focus human resources in public health and provide a career path for health professionals to carry out core functions.
The use of case studies will extrapolate the problem, that is, the impact of disease burden, the impact of a functional or partly functional NPHI’s in addressing the problem and gaps and opportunities to explore.
The external resource managed by APHF commenced the process in November 2023, and has gained some momentum together with significant input from Africa CDC Health Economics experts and technical teams. This collaboration has currently set out a work plan and is expected to have initial product within Q2 2024.
