Thirteen African countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen cross-border cooperation on disease prevention, health information sharing and the joint provision of medical supplies.
The agreement, announced during the 76th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa (RC76), is aimed at improving outbreak preparedness and response across the continent.
Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Angola and Tanzania are among the countries that signed the agreement.
Director-General of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), Mesay Hailu, said Ethiopia’s health security reforms had strengthened its capacity to prevent, detect and respond to disease outbreaks.
He said the EPHI had been positioned as Ethiopia’s national focal point for implementing the International Health Regulations (IHR), with key responsibilities distributed across national, subnational and international public health emergency management systems.
“Following our first National Action Plan for Health Security, a joint external evaluation demonstrated an increase in overall capacity to 61 per cent in 2023,” Hailu said.
He added that under the second National Action Plan for Health Security, covering 2024 to 2028, the country was systematically monitoring performance across all health security capacity areas.
Hailu also highlighted Ethiopia’s efforts to align its health security framework with the 2024 amendments to the IHR, including plans to review and realign relevant local laws.
He welcomed references to outcome documents of the WHO and the Inter-Parliamentary Union as benchmarks for measuring progress in strengthening health security capacities at the subnational level.
According to him, Ethiopia has expanded its public health emergency management structures to the district level and established targets to improve preparedness at the subnational level.
Speaking on financing and regional cooperation, World Bank Senior Health Specialist, Tseganeh Amsalu, said the MoU was designed to institutionalise cooperation among participating countries before disease outbreaks occur.
“Primarily, this MoU is an agreement signed to strengthen cross-border cooperation or collaboration between these nations,” Amsalu said.
He explained that the agreement would facilitate the exchange of critical health information and enable participating countries to share medical supplies and other essential health commodities during emergencies.
Amsalu described the agreement as a “major critical milestone”, stressing the importance of establishing regional cooperation proactively rather than waiting until disease outbreaks occur.
He said the World Bank had pledged high-level support to Ethiopia to strengthen disease prevention capacity, develop health infrastructure and improve human resources for health.
“Ethiopia being a signatory to this Memorandum of Understanding means it will play a major role,” he said, describing the agreement as a significant investment in disease prevention and in building the capacity of participating countries.
Amsalu reaffirmed the World Bank’s continued support for Ethiopia and neighbouring countries in protecting populations and economies from the impact of disease outbreaks.
He said the World Bank and other development partners would support the implementation of actions outlined in the agreement.
“This is a very critical stage in outbreak preparedness and response in the continent,” Amsalu said.
The MoU was signed as African health ministers deliberated on the broader continental health agenda, “A New Era of Health for Africa: United Action for Vision 2035”, which seeks to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage and strengthen health security across Africa.
(ENA)
