The Pandemic Fund

Background

Fiji was awarded US$10.1 million from the Pandemic Fund to advance the country’s pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities through the Fiji Health Emergency Inclusive Readiness (FHEIR) project. The grant also mobilized US$2.1 million in co-financing and US$5.5 million in co-investment.

As a small island nation, Fiji faces a unique set of circumstances including high vulnerability to climate change and reliance on a narrow set of sectors for economic growth. Thirty percent of the country’s people live in areas threatened by strengthening coastal storms and rising sea levels, and the drop in tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic strained the economy. Fiji’s health sector struggled under the weight of the pandemic, too, with service disruptions and a spike in mental health and gender-based violence. Healthcare delivery is challenging even under normal circumstances, as services must reach across Fiji’s 330 islands. The compound burden of extreme weather events and economic and social vulnerabilities heightens Fiji’s vulnerability to public health emergencies. 

The FHEIR project embodies the Pandemic Fund’s emphasis on multisectoral collaboration. It brings Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Services together with two Implementing Entities, the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO). Additional partners include the United Nations Population Fund, Field Epidemiology in Action, the Fiji Council of Social Services, Rainbow Pride Foundation, the National Council for Persons with Disabilities, Empower Pacific, and the Fiji Red Cross Society. 
 

Project objectives

Fiji will use the Pandemic Fund grant to reinforce the country’s public health system using the One Health approach, with a focus on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. 
 

Implementation arrangements and key components

The FHEIR project incorporates the Pandemic Fund’s priorities of surveillance and workforce development and emphasizes the effective use of data and evidence. Activities within each of these areas are detailed below. 

1. Enhancing community-based surveillance and social listening. This component of the project includes expanding community-based surveillance to climate-sensitive disease hotspots, extending community-based surveillance protocols to animal health events, and upgrading connectivity for community-level reporting. It also includes implementing social listening tools that can pick up both human and animal health threats and augmenting that ability through community health workers and civil society networks.
2. Improving health information management, sharing, and analysis and multi-hazard risk profiling. Activities in this area include establishing automated data collection and verification processes for the Health Information Unit and Health Emergency Operations Centre within the Ministry of Health and Medical Services, developing in-house capacity to maintain an integrated health management information system, and decentralizing basic data functions to enable Ministry personnel to focus on data-driven analysis, operational planning, and other complex functions. Activities in this area also include building a foundation for multi-hazard risk profiling.
3. Developing One Health workforce capacity. Workforce activities include establishing an intermediate Field Epidemiology Training Program and equipping graduates across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors to conduct localized data analysis and response, as well as expanding the Fiji Red Cross Society’s epidemic control training to additional community health workers and relevant military personnel. This component of the project also focuses on disaster management training for emergency health workers, maintenance training for emergency medical technicians, and mental health and psychosocial support for the surge workforce.
    

Expected outcomes

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Fiji aims to:

1. Enhance community-based surveillance and social listening
2. Improve health information management, sharing, and analysis and multi-hazard risk profiling, and
3. Develop a resilient, multidisciplinary workforce that can apply the One Health approach to public health emergencies.