The Pandemic Fund

Background

South Africa was awarded US$25 million from the Pandemic Fund to boost its prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) capabilities and fend off pandemic threats. The grant mobilized an additional US$27 million in co-investment and US$12.4 million in co-financing. The project's three Implementing Entities (IEs) are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Other partners include the Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (ARC-OVR), the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the National Health Laboratory Service, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Stellenbosch University, the South African Medical Research Council, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Witwatersrand. 

South Africa boasts a robust scientific infrastructure. It hosts the mRNA Vaccine Technology Transfer Hub, supported by the WHO, and assists other countries in the region with critical functions such as testing and genomic sequencing. Nonetheless, shifting dynamics within South Africa complicate the country’s public health landscape. Urbanization is expected to grow from 63 percent to 80 percent by 2050. This trend, coupled with waves of migration from neighboring countries, is expected to strain public health management. Dwindling natural habitats, meanwhile, are increasing interactions between people and animals, elevating the risk of zoonotic diseases. And integration between the human and animal health sectors is limited. Weaknesses within the health workforce, exposed during COVID-19, also affect key fields such as intensive care nursing, epidemiology, and veterinary science. 

In the spirit of the Pandemic Fund, South Africa’s project incorporates a diverse coalition of partners. The National Department of Health leads, in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform, and Rural Development, the Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, and the project’s broad range of IEs, financers, and investors. 

Project objectives

With the Pandemic Fund grant, South Africa’s National Department of Health aims to build on the country’s strengths and mitigate the impact of any future outbreaks on the country and its people. 
 

Implementation arrangements and key components

The project’s outcomes and structure align precisely with the Pandemic Fund’s priorities: surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. Detail on each area follows. 

1. Surveillance and early warning systems. This component of the project focuses on strengthening multisectoral surveillance with a One Health approach, using the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy to strengthen relevant systems from the community to the national level, incorporating surveillance data into decision-making, and furthering public health improvements among vulnerable populations, including people living with disabilities and in rural areas.
2. Laboratory systems. This work focuses on enhancing responsiveness to outbreaks and reinforcing One Health research activities, standardizing detection and response protocols across the country’s human, animal, and environmental health laboratories, and clearly defining the referral network for emerging pathogens. It also includes establishing infrastructure and capacity for multi-pathogen detection and genomic and metagenomic characterization, making sure that multi-pathogen molecular testing is available at the periphery and community-level laboratories, upgrading the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa with genomic sequencing capabilities and protocols, as well as data exchange mechanisms, and improving the efficiency of genomic data analysis and bioinformatics pipelines. Additional activities include helping the ARC-OVR become accredited as a global reference laboratory and developing the infrastructure to conduct zoonotic disease testing and genomic characterization in wastewater and shared bodies of water.  
3. Workforce development. Activities in this area focus on upskilling human health and veterinary professionals, aligning human resource development with the One Health approach, and integrating efforts across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors. They also include developing mechanisms to deploy workers swiftly during emergencies, building advanced diagnostics and research skills at laboratories, and strengthening community engagement strategies to respond to public health risks.  

The FAO focuses on animal health and implementing the One Health approach across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors. UNICEF contributes to workforce development, with a focus on community health workers, as well as risk communication and community engagement. The WHO lends its expertise in disease prevention and response across surveillance, laboratory systems, and workforce development. 

Expected outcomes

With the Pandemic Fund grant and the support of its partners, South Africa expects to: 

1. Enhance the country’s surveillance system, guided by the One Health and IDSR strategies
2. Enable laboratories to detect emerging pathogens rapidly across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors, and
3. Build capacity within the health workforce to respond to public health emergencies.