Cross-border collaboration and capacity-building for improved health emergency response planning in Southern Africa

Abstract

Background Many countries were ill prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic and the sudden border closures introduced to stem contagion. To address this planning and response gap, Health Systems Trust and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine jointly implemented a capacity-building project among eight Southern African countries during 2022. The intention was to strengthen collaboration among the countries in implementing public health emergency response strategies. Shared analysis of cross-border movement patterns, and building neighbouring countries’ capacity to identify priority areas for such response planning, strengthened relationships for communicating health risks and events. Approach This chapter presents findings from project participants’ perspectives on whether and how the project supported improved regional collaboration for emergency responses to public health events, and their perceptions of how the project strengthened their border health systems. Country delegates were convened in multi-sectoral regional and sub-regional meetings and workshops to facilitate cross-border public health information-sharing and co-ordination, and to align surveillance for emergency preparedness and response. They drafted procedures to: strengthen cross-border and multi-sectoral communication; prioritise points of entry for cross-border co-ordination; map population movement patterns; and identify national and regional border health priorities. Training focused on points of entry to enhance planning for future disease outbreaks by introducing the Population Connectivity Across Borders Toolkit for analysing population movement data to guide the design of public health interventions. Conclusions Collaboration with global and regional institutions strengthened the countries’ ability to comply with International Health Regulations in responding to communicable disease outbreaks. The outcomes indicate that sustained engagement, refinement of standard operating procedures, and multilateral agreements that ensure balancing of country priorities with global health requirements, can be achieved. Continued analysis of and reflection on country work plans are needed to assess similarities and differences in priority identification, which will guide future training and development of regional strategies to build stronger border health systems.