ETHIOPIA – The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has secured a US$2.4M grant from France to bolster outbreak preparedness and response to high consequence infectious diseases in the African continent.
Africa CDC will use the funding from France, through the French development agency named Agence Française de Développement (AFD), to support Africa CDC’s mandate implementation in Africa’s public health particularly in emergency preparedness and response.
Part of the France’s investment will also support the development and strengthening of the Africa CDC Health Economics Unit (HEU) over a period of two years, through the recruitment of staff and facilitate the creation of a framework for collaboration in the field of health economics across the continent.
Through the recent funding support, AFRICA CDC will continue championing for the continental response to the COVID-19 pandemic since there is an urgent need to support the HEU in its areas of work with the expertise required for evidence-based policies and programs.
The financing will also be used to improve COVID-19 vaccination coverage in targeted countries, to build national and regional institutional capacity for addressing health challenges while strengthening countries’ health systems and routine immunization.
Furthermore, Africa CDC and AFD, in partnership with Amref Health Africa, will invest in locally-led action including Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) and support national vaccination strategies to intensify vaccination roll out and increase uptake.
Africa CDC has been supporting vaccination activities across Africa through the Saving Lives and Livelihoods program around four pillars namely purchasing vaccine doses, supporting the deployment of vaccines, strengthening manufacturing of human vaccines and building institutional capacity.
Africa CDC and AFD further expressed their commitment towards joining efforts in helping countries strengthen their public health and laboratory systems while pledging to maintain close collaboration for the achievement of the health and development objectives of the African Union.
Meanwhile, the Africa CDC recently secured a US$100M grant from the World Bank to strengthen public health emergency preparedness and bolster response to health emergencies in line with the continent’s New Public Health Order.
The Africa CDC will use the funding to improve Africa’s public health institution’s capabilities, enhance Africa CDC’s technical capacity and strengthen institutional frameworks with a goal to intensify support to African countries in preparing for, detecting and responding to any health security threat.
In addition, the financing will significantly build on Africa CDC’s momentum of implementing Africa’s vision of a New Public Health Order to guide transformative investments for the continent’s medium- to longer-term health security as well as further Africa’s health security agenda.
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