Strengthen epidemiological services in the ECOWAS region

Project Description:

management4health together with its consortium partner Integrated Quality Laboratory Services (IQLS) have been mandated  for a project from the West African Health Organization (WAHO) represented by KfW Development Bank -“Strengthening of Epidemiological Services and Health Systems in the ECOWAS Region”. Based on a decision of the 15 member states of the ECOWAS Region, a regional, supranational epidemiological surveillance system shall be established to address the root causes of the devastating Ebola epidemic of 2014/15, amongst which were weak, underfunded and understaffed health services including laboratories. The backbone of this system will be a regional network of Centers of Disease Control (CDC) hierarchically organized with the Regional (reference) CDC (RCDC) in Abuja, Nigeria and national CDCs established in all member countries. The program shall be coordinated by the WAHO. In the framework of its cooperation with ECOWAS and especially the WAHO, the German government through the KfW Development Bank has decided to allocate the amount of 10 million EURO to support the development of the above mentioned system mainly through the procurement of laboratory equipment including accompanying measures for staff training and infrastructure measures if required to achieve adequate (BSL-3) biosafety standards.

Scope of work:

• Analysis of health systems of ECOWAS member states and the current situation in relation to epidemiological surveillance systems.
• Analysis of existing laboratory systems and an evaluation of their functionality.
• Meetings with the team of WAHO in Bobo-Dioulasso to establish a consensus on the methodology to be applied in the next phases of the project, including technical and managerial audits of preselected laboratories;
• Detailed technical and managerial evaluation of laboratories using a standardized tool.