Improving epidemic and pandemic preparedness and strengthening biosecurity in Africa.

 

No country is fully prepared for future pandemic or epidemic threats, and African nations face unique challenges and opportunities in building resilient health systems, sustaining investments and core capacities, and strengthening health security governance. 

What is the AHS Index?

The Africa Health Security (AHS) Index is a comprehensive, independent assessment of epidemic and pandemic preparedness across Africa.

The index, launching in 2026, will enable leaders to measure, finance, and advance improvements in health security and create an evidence-based accountability framework to track progress toward better epidemic and pandemic preparedness in Africa.

Why is it needed?

The world remains dangerously unprepared for the next biological threat. Despite meaningful action taken by African countries in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Global Health Security (GHS) Index indicated that the continent is unprepared to sufficiently prevent, detect, and respond to high-consequence biological threats. The average overall GHS Index score for African nations is 29 out of a possible 100 which leaves significant opportunity for improvement.

Leaders across the world continue to neglect investing in epidemic and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, regardless of their income level. Political will and sustainable financial resources will be critical in building lasting capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging biological threats.

What does the AHS Index do?

Created on the recommendation of African public health leaders, the AHS Index will provide new data on health security targets across the continent, including new preparedness indicators at the intersection of health and climate security.

The AHS Index will use innovative data collection and analytic approaches to enhance the Global Health Security (GHS) Index. It will enable African leaders to track the impact of programs to improve health security on the continent and identify opportunities to advance epidemic and pandemic preparedness. In collaboration with African partners, the AHS Index will evaluate data from a broad set of health security indicators, building on the GHS Index framework, and will include a focused analysis of African priorities:

• Preventing accidental and deliberate biological events (biosafety and biosecurity)
• Detecting and reporting emerging outbreaks (biosurveillance)
• Bolstering medical countermeasure development and deployment
• Assessing how climate change affects health security on the African continent and in subregions
• Evaluating how the African continent’s five regions have built regional capacities to augment national health security infrastructure

The AHS Index will:

• Create political accountability to incentivize governments to invest in pandemic preparedness capacity within their borders.
• Provide data for donors and governments to make evidence-based decisions to prioritize resource allocation more effectively, maximizing the impact of investments.
• Set a standard for biosecurity and pandemic preparedness.

The AHS Index Reference Group

The Africa Health Security Index Reference Group is a group of African experts providing strategic direction for the project, ensuring that it effectively serves the needs of African public health and health security leaders. Members include:

• Prof. Ali Asy, Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Egypt 
• Mr. Donewell Bangure, Laboratory Systems and Networks Division African Union, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Ethiopia 
• Mr. Ian Peter Busuulwa, Biological Threat Reduction, World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Kenya 
• Dr. Rym Benkhalifa, Laboratory of Biomolecules, Venoms and Theranostic Applications Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunisia 
• Mrs. Idosie Kenfack, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Burundi 
• Dr. Issa Makumbi, Uganda National Institute of Public Health; Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC), Uganda 
• Dr. Talkmore Maruta, African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM), Zambia 
• Mr. Zibusiso Masuku, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, South Africa 
• Dr. Augustin Mouinga-Ondeme, Département de Virologie, Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF), Gabon 
• Dr. Tolbert Nyenswah, PandemicShield, LLC; Department of International Health, John Hopkins University, Liberia 
• Dr. Chinwe Lucia Ochu, Planning, Research and Statistics, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Nigeria (currently in Washington, DC) 
• Dr. Donald I. Ofili, West Africa Regional Technical Working Group on Biosafety and Biosecurity; MLSCN Accreditation Service, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Nigeria 
• Dr. Judy Omumbo, Science Solutions for Emerging Global Priorities, Science for Africa Foundation, Kenya 
• Dr. Samira Senouci, Moroccan Biosafety Association; Microbiology and Health Security Department, National Institute for Hygiene, Ministry of Health, Morocco (Ret.) 
• Ms. Lizeka Tandwa, Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa 
• Dr. Oyewale Tomori, Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, Nigeria 

Individuals on the AHS Index Reference Group are experts providing guidance in their personal capacities or in their capacities as representatives of advising organizations. The judgments and recommendations reflected in the AHS Index do not necessarily reflect the views of panel members or their respective employers, other affiliations, or governments.

Partners

The AHS Index is developed by NTI | bio, in partnership with the Brown University Pandemic Center, and Economist Impact, in collaboration with Science for Africa Foundation, University of the Witwatersrand (Johannesburg, South Africa), and University of Tunis El Manar (Tunis, Tunisia). Funding is provided by the Gates Foundation.