As part of efforts to build public health capacity in francophone countries in West Africa, Expertise France, with funding from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), has formally launched a project known as “Strengthening Public Health Human Resources (RHSP), in close prtnership with the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC).
The four-year project, expected to cost 4.5millio euros, was launched on Thursday on the sidelines of the Assembly of Ministers of Health and a technical meeting in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
The implementation of the project which is to be limited in the Gulf of Guinea, namely Benin, Guinea and Togo, will be under the auspices of the West African Health Organization (WAHO), and aims to reduce gender inequalities and mortality in the face of health crises in French-speaking ECOWAS countries by 2030, with taking gender issues into account as one of the project’s main objectives.
The project comes against the backdrop of recurrent outbreaks of infectious diseases in West Africa, which have a devastating socio-economic impact on people’s well-being. The harmful consequences of these outbreaks on health and the need for early detection, prevention and prompt and effective response despite the shortcomings of national health systems, informed the initiative by France to support the implementation the RHSP, through a One Health and Gender-Sensitive Approach” in the French-speaking ECOWAS countries.
The project’s objectives include the establishment of robust and resilient RHSP development policies in West Africa that meet the needs of sub-regional organisations and French-speaking ECOWAS countries in terms of ISS / One Health / Gender.
The second objective of the project, scheduled to last 48 months, is to improve training provision for public health actors in the French-speaking ECOWAS region in IHS/One Health/Gender in line with WHO quality standards through increased support for the NPHIs in the target countries.
In order to improve ownership of the project by the regional health organisations, the beneficiary countries and the TFPs working in the field of PHRH, Expertise France launched an in-depth diagnosis which enabled the project to be adapted to the needs of the beneficiaries. The in-depth diagnosis led to recommendations and guidelines. It also enabled the scope
Speaking at the launch, the Charge d’Affaires, French Embassy Abuja, Jean-Francoois HASPERUE, described the project as a perfect illustration of the key priorities of the French Global Health strategy that was launched in October last year: health security through a One Health Approach
“It is a new testimony of our willingness to support the effort of regional institutions in their essential mandate. It puts the emphasis on France’s priority to support the development of quality human resources to support resilient and strong health systems for the benefit of the West African people,” he said.
Hasperue, who noted that the COVID-19 pandemic shed a brutal light on the weaknesses caused by the lack of investments in health systems, said there was a crucial need to support the development of resilient health systems, able to anticipate, prepare and respond to public health emergencies
He said: “The COVID crisis also demonstrated that strengthening health systems alone will not be enough to fight emerging health threats. Indeed, a “One Health” Approach, taking into account the interrelations between the health of people, animals and the Planet ecosystems, is needed. Therefore, France is aiming to support the building of strong national and regional public health institutions able to prevent and manage current and future health threats.
Health security relies on qualified human resources for health who will be able to adapt to evolving needs. The shortage of health workforce is a global issue but is nowhere more felt than in Africa. By 2030, the projected global shortage is about 10 million health workers (WHO). This is why France has made it as number 1 priority of its global Health strategy. The project we are launching today is a concrete example of this commitment.
“This project is also a new step in France’s partnership with ECOWAS and its specialized agency: the West African Health organization. This partnership has been built since 2016 around three main areas of collaboration: 1) health security, 2) reproductive and maternal health, and 3) the development of human resources for the sector and the region.
Other speakers at the launch were the Country Director Nigeria of ADF, Xavier MURO, and the Director-General of WAHO, Dr. Aissi Melchior Athanase.
Performing the official launch, the Vice President, ECOWAS Commission, Madam Damtien L. Tchintchibidja, explained that the project was meant to help to build capacity, defend health sector, train health practitioners, to minimize brain drain in medical sector, among other interventions.
She said as a starting phase, it involves three states of Benin, Togo and Guinea out of the 15-member states of the ECOWAS states, adding that it would be extended to other member states depending on extent of mobilisation of funds.
Madam Tchintchibidja, said: “It is very important to the West African countries as you know that it is being implemented by the West African health implementation, WAHO in collaboration with our partners, the French Agency for development. It is significant because it is strategically to help build capacity in the health sector and to help us to retrain our health personnel within our region.
“The project is starting first with three countries: Benin, Togo and Guinea as the first three countries that will be benefiting from this financing and it is billed for a period of four years and it is 4.5 million Euros annually over the four years period.
“You know our Commission is made up of 15-member states, you have to start somewhere as you cannot do all countries at once. This is the first countries we are starting with and we are also calling on other partners to join us in order to help boast this project so that we can extend it to other members states as well.
“The next stage will depend on the finance we have been able to secure in order to expand the project to other members states.
“It is to reinforce our capacity, defend our health sector, it will train practitioners because we have brain drain of our health practitioners as you can see that a lot of our youths we have invested so much in acquiring education in the health sector tend to leave and move on to more developed countries like US, Canada and various countries in Europe.
“So, this is to mobilise them within our countries and help to improve our health sector in various countries in region.”
She congratulated Director General of WAHO for this laudable initiative aimed at supporting member States in their efforts to face the numerous challenges in health matters.
She recalled that the EBOLA epidemic which wreaked havoc mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of ECOWAS member states health structures.
“It was following the Ebola epidemic that ECOWAS decided to opt for a thematic approach in its early ECOWARN mechanism which includes health with a focus on not only epidemics, pandemics but also our health infrastructures in member states.
“It goes without saying that any initiative aimed at strengthening the capacities of health personnel in our States should be strongly encouraged. Sustainable economic and social progress is only possible with well-developed human capital.”