Assessment of the COVID-19 Response in Eastern, Central and Western Africa – COVID-19 assessment project

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Ventures/ Exemplars in Global Health

The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health crisis that has affected all countries and territories in the world, causing more than three million deaths. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic toll in Africa, several countries mobilized significant financial, human, logistical and technical support to strengthen pre-existing public health response capacities of their health systems. Several countries instituted non-pharmaceutical interventions with varying intensities and coverage such as closure of education and religious institutions, banning of public transport and overnight curfew. These interventions have the potential to significantly disrupt national and household economies and could negatively impact health service delivery and uptake. These effects could vary across countries depending on the nature and extent of the non-pharmaceutical interventions as well as the fidelity with which they are implemented. This project aimed to assess and curate the (i) response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and the outcomes in terms of COVID-19 control and (ii) continuity of essential non-COVID-19 health services within the COVID-19 period, to inform the COVID-19 response and recovery as well as health system resilience to future disease outbreaks in Africa. The study is conducted in four countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Senegal, and Uganda.

Approaches

Three key approaches are employed to answer the research questions.

1. Review of literature including published articles, reports, briefs and blogs.
2. Analysis of secondary data from the Health Management Information Systems.
3. Key informant interviews with stakeholders at national and subnational levels and communities.

Study outcomes

The project has six overarching outcomes described below:

1. Documentation of the surveillance, diagnosis and treatment strategies employed by countries during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Documentation of packages of non-pharmaceutical interventions and health systems interventions that countries can consider in response to current or future waves of COVID-19 and future epidemics of other diseases.
3. Case exemplars of feasibility and effectiveness of approaches and interventions taken by African governments which have been successful or unsuccessful (for the COVID-19 response).
4. Case exemplars of approaches and interventions undertaken by African governments to ensure continuity of non COVID-19 routine care.
5. Case exemplars of approaches and interventions undertaken by African governments to mitigate the negative socioeconomic and gender vulnerabilities due to COVID-19.
6. Strengthen a network/community of practice of universities focused on assessing the impact of public health emergencies of international concern in general and COVID-19 in particular for policy makers, based on existing networks housed by MakSPH.

Partners:

 

Makerere University School of Public Health (Uganda)	University of Kinshasa (DRC)	University of Ibadan (Nigeria)	University of Dakar (Senegal)

 

Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Ventures/Exemplars in Global Health

Project outputs

• Presentation on testing and surveillance approaches employed by countries during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Report on testing and surveillance approaches employed by countries during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Presentation on approaches and interventions undertaken by countries to ensure continuity of non-COVID-19 routine care testing.
• Report on testing and surveillance approaches employed by countries during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Community of practice of universities on disease preparedness and response in Africa

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has further brought to the fore the need for institutions to share expertise, best practices, and work collaboratively across African countries and regions as well as globally to effectively respond to epidemic challenges. The project is establishing a community of practice (CoP) of African institutions focused on sharing evidence, expertise, peer learning and strengthening capacities for COVID-19 control and the broader disease preparedness and response. The CoP will discuss several themes in line with the outcomes of the COVID-19 assessment project including testing and surveillance, health systems resilience, non-pharmaceutical interventions, gender and socio-economic vulnerabilities, vaccine preparedness and epidemic control among others.  The CoP will contribute to the development of the capacity of African institutions to successfully prepare, analyze and respond to disease epidemics. Information on joining the CoP will be availed soon.