About the AHS Index
The Africa Health Security (AHS) Index is a continent-focused adaptation of the Global Health Security (GHS) Index designed to reflect African priorities and contexts. It evaluates preparedness capacities across 54 countries using publicly available data and a standardized analytical framework.
The report provides the following:
- An overview of how the AHS Index was designed and shaped through extensive engagement with regional experts and research partners on the continent, and the AHS Index Reference Group (Reference Group)—African experts who provided strategic direction for the project, ensuring that it effectively serves the needs of African public health and health security leaders.
- The methodological foundations of the Index.
- A description of new indicators and refinements that reflect African priorities as expressed by the Reference Group and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
- An assessment of capacities within the six AHS Index categories.
The findings are presented in two ways. First, the report examines trends across the AHS Index’s six major categories:
- Prevention
- Detection and reporting
- Rapid response
- Health system
- Commitments to norms
- Risk environment
Second, the report synthesizes analysis for cross-cutting priority focus areas identified by the Reference Group:
- Biosecurity and biosafety
- Biosurveillance
- Medical countermeasure development and deployment
- Climate change impact on health security
- Regional capacities and initiatives
- Financing and spending commitments and institutions
In addition, the report offers recommendations tailored to specific audiences—governments, funders and financing institutions, and international and regional organizations—to help translate the Index’s findings into practical, actionable next steps. These recommendations support long-term, sustainable investments in health security across the continent.
Other resources available on the AHS Index website include full and filtered data sets, interactive visualizations, country-level information, and an Excel workbook for offline and in-depth analysis. Together, these tools allow users to closely examine the data, focus on key priority areas, and guide evidence-based decision-making at both national and regional levels.
Acknowledgments
The 2026 AHS Index was developed with numerous individuals and organizations whose expertise, partnership, and leadership was invaluable. We are deeply grateful to:
- The members of our Reference Group for strategic guidance on the analytical framework, findings, and recommendations and to Mr. Peter Babigumira Ahabwe for serving as the Reference Group chair.
- Senior leadership at Africa CDC for their review of and input on our data collection framework.
- The teams of researchers at the University of Tunis El Manar (UTM), led by Dr. Hanene Boussi and at the University of The Witwatersrand (Wits), led by Ms. Lizeka Tandwa, who led the data validation process. We also acknowledge the UTM and Wits leadership and administrative staff for their institutional support, including Dr. Moez Chafra, President and Professor in Engineering, Biomechanics and Biomaterials, UTM; Mrs. Leila Battikh, Head of Academic Staff Affairs, UTM; Mr. Majed Harchi, Head of Informatics Office, UTM; and Mrs. Tebogo Dithung, Centre Manager, Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, Wits.
- Participants in the October 2025 AHS Index roundtable, whose insights strengthened this project, including Dr. Jean Kaseya (Africa CDC), Priya Basu (Pandemic Fund), and Dr. Babatunde Omilola (African Development Bank), Dr. Donald Ofili (Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria), and Dr. Victor Dzau (National Academy of Medicine).
- Mikaël Garnier-Lavalley, Paige Snider, and Christopher Armstrong of the Pandemic Fund for counsel throughout this project.
- The Gates Foundation for financial and strategic support to make this project possible.
- NTI President and CEO Christine E. Wormuth, Co-Chairs and Board of Directors, and Chief Operating Officer Carmen MacDougall for leadership and commitment to reducing catastrophic biological risks and advancing global health security; Sara Kaufman for analytical support and coordination across project partners; Scott Nolan Smith, Ryan Cahill, Grace Wankelman, and Mimi Hall for supporting strategic communications for the AHS Index, with support from partners at Burness; Carolyn Reynolds for strategic guidance on outreach and advocacy.
- Leah Lovgren, Carly Gasca, Margaret Dunne, and Diane Meyer from the Brown University Pandemic Center for technical expertise in data review, analysis, and writing, and for coordinating across partners; Oluwatosin Akande, Clara Baisinger-Rosen, Danica Damoah, Samuel Eskander, Aaron Johnson, Kyoungmin (Kris) Lee, and Christopher Semancik for contributions to the data review and analysis. Ailia Haider and Kenneth Lane from Economist Enterprise for managing research and data quality and advancing partnership opportunities.