The World Health Organization (WHO), Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), and the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) have announced the expansion of the Health Security Partnership to Strengthen Disease Surveillance in Africa (HSPA).
The new phase will run from 2025 to 2028 and includes seven African countries, such as Rwanda, in addition to the initial six: The Gambia, Mali, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, and Tunisia.
The HSPA initiative aims to enhance disease surveillance and epidemic intelligence across the continent.
It seeks to improve early detection and response to health threats—whether natural, accidental, or deliberate—by linking health and security systems.
According to Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, Acting WHO Regional Director for Africa, the HSPA represents a strategic advancement in Africa’s health security. He emphasized WHO’s commitment to collaborative efforts focused on national priorities and sustainable impact.
“HSPA represents an important step forward in building stronger partnerships for health security in Africa,” he said.
“By bringing together global, regional and national actors, this initiative supports countries in strengthening Collaborative Surveillance through mutual exchange and practical action. WHO remains committed to working alongside Member States to ensure that these collective efforts are well-coordinated, responsive, and rooted in national priorities,” he added.
Africa records the highest number of disease outbreaks globally. While countries have improved surveillance over the past decade, coordinated support remains essential to address emerging and complex biological threats.
The HSPA initiative uses a Collaborative Surveillance model that integrates both the health and security sectors.
Its core pillars include biorisk management, genomic surveillance, epidemic intelligence, and both indicator-based and event-based surveillance.
Implementation support is being delivered through targeted training, development of strategic guidance, co-designed roadmaps, and hands-on technical assistance to align with national health priorities.
The program is supported by the Government of Canada through its Weapons Threat Reduction Program and will receive additional funding from the United Kingdom during phase two.
In line with HSPA, the Africa CDC shares six objectives to strengthen health-related surveillance systems:
- Promote Event-Based Surveillance: Establish it for early warning, risk assessment, prediction, and rapid response to disease threats.
- Support National Public Health Institutes (NPHIs): Strengthen NPHIs to coordinate multi-sectoral surveillance and inform public health policies.
- Enhance Existing Systems: Strengthen Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) and ensure integration with animal, agriculture, and environmental sectors.
- Improve Disease-Specific Surveillance: Support tailored systems for priority diseases like HIV, TB, malaria, hepatitis, and NCDs.
- Foster Regional Collaboration: Strengthen Regional Collaborating Centres for cross-border surveillance, data sharing, and lab network engagement.
- Enhance Field Epidemiology Training: Expand FETP to improve knowledge in study design and analysis of demographic and meta-data.
- Develop Skilled Surveillance Workforce: Assist Member States in building a sufficient and capable workforce aligned with IDSR and IHR requirements.
With this expansion, the HSPA initiative is set to accelerate progress in building a healthier, safer, and more resilient Africa.
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