The Pandemic Fund

Background

Ghana was awarded US$16.3 million from the Pandemic Fund to advance a robust prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) program, while enhancing the resilience of essential health and social services for the country’s people. The project catalyzed an additional US$2.6 million in co-financing and US$5.3 million in co-investment.

Ghana began strengthening its ability to prevent, detect, and respond to public health threats prior to receiving the Pandemic Fund grant, including via its National Action Plan for Health Security. Nonetheless, the country remained vulnerable to epidemics and pandemics. Ghana is a connection hub for more than 600 thousand travelers a year, which introduces the risk of cross-border disease transmission. Rapid urbanization, the proliferation of peri-urban informal settlements, and commercial activity in the animal sector all increase the risk of emerging and zoonotic diseases. The impact of climate change, including floods and rising temperatures, also exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases. The socioeconomic cost of public health emergencies is high for Ghanaians, particularly for women, whose caregiving responsibilities often mount as a result.

In the Pandemic Fund’s spirit of multisectoral collaboration, Ghana’s project is a joint effort among the Ministry of Health, the National Disaster Management Organization, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection, and two Implementing Entities: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Additional partners include the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the International Organization for Migration, UNICEF, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the World Bank, as well as research and education institutions including the University of Ghana School of Public Health, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, and Presbyterian University. Civil society partners include the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health, the Ghana HIV and AIDS Network, the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Malaria, the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, and the Stop TB Ghana Partnership. 
 

Project objectives

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Ghana aims to lessen the risk of death and disease associated public health emergencies for all Ghanaians.  
 

Implementation arrangements and key components

Ghana’s project aligns with the Pandemic Fund’s three priorities: surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. Activities within each area include: 

1. Reinforcing surveillance. This work focuses on increasing the use of electronic, integrated surveillance and response strategies at the country’s health facilities and points of entry, upgrading systems to enable real-time reporting and data sharing, and training volunteers and civil society organizations in community- and event-based surveillance and detection. It also includes finalizing and implementing One Health-informed policies, strategies, and PPR, bolstering cross-border surveillance and multisectoral cooperation, and enhancing the collection, analysis, and reporting of data that is disaggregated by age, gender, and other social markers.
2. Upgrading laboratories. Activities in this area focus on ensuring policies and systems are aligned with the One Health approach, revising biosafety, biosecurity, and containment practices, and boosting testing quality, as well as external quality assurance. They include strengthening blood banks’ testing abilities and ensuring the availability of safe blood products, bolstering diagnostic capacity by training staff and supplying reagents, consumables, and equipment, and integrating age, gender, and pregnancy status in the labeling, recording, reporting, and analysis of test results. They also involve supporting laboratory-based antimicrobial resistance surveillance.
3. Developing the workforce. This component of the project focuses on expanding the Field Epidemiology Training Program, educating staff on International Health Regulations, and starting global laboratory leadership and AMR operational research training programs. Additional activities in this area include integrating topics such as surveillance, PPR, and equity into pre-service curricula for training programs across the health sectors and training staff to engage communities in early warning, emergency management, and essential health service delivery. There is also a focus on enhancing surge capacity during emergencies, emphasizing lifesaving care, equity, and the continuity of health and social services. 

FAO plays a critical role in building capacity within the animal health sector. The WHO contributes technical and policy advice, as well as expertise in complex program management across the global, regional, and country levels. Both organizations help with operational and programmatic quality control. 
 

Expected outcomes

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Ghana expects to:

1. Strengthen One Health surveillance and early warning systems to detect and respond to public health events,
2. Upgrade human, animal, and environmental health laboratories to support disease surveillance, testing, and diagnosis, and
3. Boost the capacity of the One Health workforce to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies.