The Pandemic Fund

Background

Jordan was awarded US$4 million from the Pandemic Fund to reinforce its public health architecture and successfully ward off pandemic threats. The grant mobilized an additional US$2.3 million in co-financing and US$10.6 million in co-investment. 

Jordan has made significant investments in public health, including establishing a Center for Disease Control and upgrading the country’s laboratory and human resource capabilities. Nonetheless, the arrival of many Palestinian and Syrian refugees, rapid population growth, economic challenges, and the effects of climate change are stretching the system's capacity. Risks also arise from neighboring countries, including cholera and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.

The project is a joint effort among the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Jordan Food and Drug Administration, and the Jordan Center for Disease Control, as well as three Implementing Entities: the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Additional partners include the International Organization for Migration, the Islamic Center Charity Society, the Royal Health Awareness Society, and Tkiyet Um Ali. 
 

Project objectives

With the Pandemic Fund grant, Jordan plans to upgrade the country’s prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capabilities and minimize the public health risks to its expanding population. 
 

Implementation arrangements and key components

Jordan's project aligns with the One Health approach and the Pandemic Fund’s three priorities: surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. Activities comprising each area include: 

1. Enhancing surveillance. This component of the project spans various surveillance domains, from human and animal health to food safety, management of infectious diseases, AMR, and the relevant equipment and communication tools. Activities include designing an integrated surveillance network, updating guidelines for event-based surveillance and reporting, and implementing policies for data access and sharing. Risk communication and community engagement will support the surveillance work.
2. Upgrading laboratories. Activities focused on the laboratory system include standardizing laboratory processes, developing guidelines for sample handling, improving referral and transport systems, enhancing testing and diagnostic capabilities, and procuring equipment and reagents. They also include developing accreditation standards and processes, offering training on the accreditation mechanisms, facilitating professional development for biosafety and biosecurity officers, and engaging a broader set of stakeholders in biosafety and security.
3. Developing the workforce. This body of work includes updating manuals for zoonoses, infection prevention and control, field epidemiology, antimicrobial consumption, and AMR, as well as readying emergency medical teams for international accreditation, expanding the rosters of surge response teams, and reinforcing the health workforce at Jordan’s points of entry. It also includes improving risk communication and community engagement with a focus on AMR and vulnerable communities. 

The FAO ensures that animal health is fully incorporated into the One Health approach, while UNICEF leads on risk communication and community engagement. The WHO focuses on human health and lends its expertise in event-based and integrated disease surveillance, laboratories, and human resources. 
 

Expected outcomes

This project's partners seeks to:

1. Ensure surveillance systems are successfully monitoring diseases with epidemic potential across the human and animal health sectors
2. Enable the country’s Laboratories to characterize and confirm those same diseases swiftly, and
3. Build capacity within the health workforce to mobilize rapidly and engage communities effectively to minimize disease spread.