Liberia’s health stakeholders begin Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of the International Health Regulations stakeholders’ conference, which brought together over 150 delegates from around the world. The 5-day event got underway yesterday in Monrovia.
Speaking during the opening was the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) Deputy for Technical Services, Julius Gilayeneh. He expressed Liberia’s commitment towards the one health policy.
He stated, among many things, that the JEE shall offer a comprehensive evaluation of the country’s present status by pinpointing evolving gaps and opportunities, adding, “These insights will chart a course for targeted interventions to overall systems strengthening in protecting the lives of people, animals, and the environment.
But some key areas for improvement which Liberia is being urged to revise are laws and legislations in the context of International Health Regulations (IHR) and One Health, for example the 1976 Public Health Act, key policies and strategies still in draft form, should be quickly finalized, in collaboration with relevant national stakeholders and in the context of One Health, the animal health sector needs additional efforts and interventions.
Others are Liberia’s IHR focal point and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) focal point (which is still an individual, rather than an organizational set-up or center) should be organized as a center and provided with necessary resources (information and communication technology, human, logistical and financial resources) to facilitate their function of reporting to WHO and/or OIE and to be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Also, Liberia should develop a multiphase national public emergency preparedness and response plan, which should be integrated with the points of entry (POE) emergency plans. IHR-complaint air and sea plans should also come under this plan.
In addition, cross-border collaboration/initiatives should be addressed during the development of the multiphase national public emergency preparedness and response plan. It will be important to strengthen laboratory capacity and network, including supply chain systems, and to establish internal quality control and external quality assurance systems.
Antimicrobial resistance detection mitigation and stewardship strategies and plans are urgently needed and should be addressed using a One Health approach, with close collaboration of all the relevant sectors, including agriculture and the Forestry Development Authority (FDA).
Last but not least, a budget line should be created for IHR and funding allocated for IHR core capacity building, from domestic and international sources.
However, there is a strong political will to develop International Health Regulations (IHR) capacities by taking forward a multi-sectorial health systems approach, and there are strong partnerships and stakeholder involvement at subnational, national, regional, and global levels.
This is because the country has made significant progress post-Ebola, in all domains of human and public health, as there is a robust surveillance system with countrywide coverage in the human health sector.
The foundation for the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) has been set, in collaboration with Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America) and the Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)
Robust emergency operations center (EOCs) and incident management systems (IMS) have been established at national and international levels.
The country has a good vaccine delivery system in the human health sector to deliver mass vaccinations if necessary.
Experiences of linking public health and security authorities in Liberia are commendable.
There is robust experience of deployment of medical countermeasures and personnel, and a strong foundation for infection prevention and control (IPC) practices in health facilities, through the safety quality system (SQS) training program.
