ADF grants USD9.6M to improve health emergency preparedness in Southern Africa

IVORY COAST—The African Development Fund’s (ADF) Board of Directors has approved a USD9.57 million grant to strengthen health security and emergency response capabilities across Southern African Development Community nations.

The funding, approved on March 3, 2026, comes from the African Development Bank Group’s concessional financing window and will power the Resilient Health Systems for Emergency Preparedness Project throughout the region.

This initiative targets a critical need: building stronger, more responsive health systems that can effectively tackle public health crises and nutrition emergencies across SADC member states.

The project recognizes that the region’s health infrastructure has long struggled to cope with recurring challenges, from infectious disease outbreaks to widespread malnutrition.

At the heart of the program lies comprehensive capacity building.

The project will train 449 health professionals, including laboratory technicians, community health workers, and trainers.

Women constitute a significant portion of this cohort, with 269 female professionals set to receive specialized training.

The curriculum deliberately integrates gender considerations, climate change adaptation strategies, and the One Health approach, which recognizes the interconnection between human, animal, and environmental health.

Nutrition expertise will receive particular attention through a specialized certification program.

Approximately 35 nutrition coordinators, including 21 women, will earn credentials from training institutions that specialize in nutrition and gender-responsive emergency management.

The project has revised training curricula to ensure lasting impact, with these updated programs expected to benefit around 240 students each year.

This approach aims to create a sustainable pipeline of regional experts equipped to handle nutrition crises through gender-sensitive interventions.

Infrastructure modernization forms another crucial pillar of the initiative.

The project will renovate and equip diagnostic laboratories, wastewater monitoring facilities, and environmental surveillance laboratories across six participating countries.

These upgrades will enhance disease detection capabilities and enable faster response to emerging health threats.

Mozambique’s Instituto Nacional de Saúde will undergo significant transformation to function as a regional reference laboratory, setting standards for diagnostic excellence across Southern Africa.

Meanwhile, Lesotho’s national blood bank will receive much-needed strengthening to improve blood safety and availability during emergencies.

Cross-border health coordination will advance through the establishment of a regional framework for model laboratories operating at international boundaries.

The project will deploy a mobile cross-border laboratory at two strategic points between Mozambique and Zimbabwe, enabling rapid testing and surveillance at these critical junctures where disease transmission risks run high.

Kennedy Mbekeani, the African Development Bank’s director general for Southern Africa, emphasized that this operation directly addresses the fragile state of SADC health systems.

These systems currently face multiple vulnerabilities: recurrent zoonotic disease outbreaks, persistent cholera epidemics, alarming malnutrition rates, an insufficient healthcare workforce, and inadequate emergency preparedness infrastructure.

The project represents a comprehensive response to these interconnected challenges, positioning the region to better protect its populations against future health crises.