The second Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of Nigeria’s health security capacity through the assessment of its International Health Regulations (IHR) prescribed core capacities, has commenced.
Director General, Nigeria Centre for Disease and Prevention Control (NCDC), Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Monday in Abuja, that the five-day event would be concluded on August 18, 2023.
NAN reports that one of the strategic approaches to achieving the mandate of the agency is to lead the preparedness, detection, and response to public health emergencies.
The International Health Regulations (2005) is a legally-binding framework that requires all World Health Organization (WHO) member countries to develop and maintain their capacity to prevent, detect, assess, and respond to public health risks and emergencies.
Adetifa said that following the country’s first JEE, Nigeria became one of the few countries to undertake a second round of the JEE, utilising the JEE 3.0 tools.
“The JEE, a voluntary multi-sectoral process, is one of the four components of the IHR monitoring and evaluation framework.
“This process involves a diverse team of experts, collectively evaluating a nation’s preparedness and response capacities across 19 technical areas, under the guidance of relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies,” he said.
The DG NCDC said that this underscores the holistic, multi-sectoral and all-of-government approach that is critical for national health security.
“The NCDC, as stipulated in the NCDC Act 2018, coordinates IHR implementation for the country. In 2017, Nigeria conducted her first JEE using the JEE 1.0 tool which gave a readiness score of 39 per cent.
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“Consequently, the 2018-2023 National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) was developed to address identified gaps and recommendations from the 2017 evaluation,” he said.
According to him, As a follow-up to the 2018-2023 NAPHS implementation, this 2023 JEE will enable Nigeria to critically appraise the current situation by chronicling the progress so far and by identifying new/persistent gaps and opportunities.
He said that these insights would guide the development of the 2023-2028 NAPHS and ensure that prioritised actions were included for interventions over the next five years.
“The external evaluators are a team of experts and partners who will validate the score from the recently-completed internal assessment.
“This external validation phase of the JEE involves a comprehensive review of presentations, documents, policies, and systems for each technical area.
“In addition, site visits will be conducted to national public health centres and institutes across the 19 technical areas.
“Following the reviews of the technical areas, validated scores will be aggregated to determine Nigeria’s 2023 JEE score which will signal our progress in detecting, assessing, reporting, and responding to public health events,” he said.
He said that the Nigerian Government remains resolute in safeguarding the health and well-being of all its citizens