Health security plan needs N$570m
NAMIBIA will require nearly N$576.3 million over five years to implement the National Action Plan for Health Security Plan (NAPHS). Health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula made the remarks yesterday when he launched ( NAPHS) and the Human Resource for Health Strategic Plan for 2020-2030.
The NAPHS is a country-owned, multiyear planning process that can accelerate the implementation of IHR core capacities and is based on a One Health for all-hazards, whole-of-government approach.
It captures national priorities for health security, brings sectors together, identifies partners, and allocates resources for health security and capacity development.
It also guides to identify evidence-based priority actions that can be implemented quickly to have an immediate impact as well as the long-term actions for sustainable capacity development to improve health security.
He said the implementation of NAPHS will be reviewed annually by the coordination committee. The monitoring and evaluation for this plan will also be done through the
IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, consisting of four components, notably the mandatory Annual Reporting, Joint External Evaluation, Simulation Exercises and AfterAction Reviews.
“In May 2016, the World Health Assembly requested WHO to develop a global implementation plan that includes immediate planning to improve the delivery of the International Health Regulations of 2005. The IHR [International Health Regulations] Global Strategic Action Plan recommends that the Member States, with the support of WHO and development partners, develop and implement 5-year national action plans. The National Action Plan for Health Security is one of these plans,” Shangula explained.
Further, he said, since the adoption of the International Health Regulations, Namibia has carried out several assessments of the country’s capacity to prevent the likelihood and reduce the consequences of outbreaks and other public health hazards. This includes building national capacities for early detection and effective response to public health emergencies and other events of public health concern.
In compliance with Article 54 of the IHR 2005, Namibia conducted the joint external evaluation in December 2016 and was among the first countries in Africa to conduct this evaluation.
The joint external evaluation highlighted the commitment of the government of Namibia to strengthen health security, the importance of national financing for sustainability and the role of legislatures in national funding decisions, the key role of community engagement, private sector engagement, and the importance of resilient health systems in health security.
As part of the outcome for joint external evaluation, in August 2017, Namibia started with the development of NAPHS to fill the identified resource and financial gaps in all four thematic areas with 19 technical areas, namely: prevent, detect, respond, and other International Health Regulations hazards and Points of Entry.
The HRH Strategic Plan for 2020-2030 was developed in three phases. First, a conceptualisation phase started in November 2017, which involved capacity building from the World Health Organisation (WHO) in HRH planning and data management.
This was followed by an analytical phase in which WHO and Intra Health provided technical support for elaborate data collection, stakeholder interviews, and Technical Working Group Sessions to conduct a comprehensive situation analysis and health workforce demand and supply projections, adopting a comprehensive labour market approach.
The results of both the situation analysis and the health workforce projections were presented at various fora for input and validation.