Monrovia – The International Health Regulation (IHR) and National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) self-assessment and implementation review will convene in Monrovia from August 13-16, 2019 at the Golden Gate Hotel, in Paynesville City, Montserrado County.
The meeting is intended to document Liberia’s progress since the conduct of the Joint External Evaluation of the International Health Regulation (IHR) in 2016 and prioritize NAPHS for 2020.
The National Action Plan for Health Security is a plan developed through a consultative and multi-sectoral engagement with involvement of International Partners including the World Health Organization (WHO), United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC), USAID, for the Government of Liberia to comprehensively address the threats to public health security in Liberia.
The purpose of Liberia’s NAPHS (2018-2022) is to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats, prevent international spread of epidemic-prone diseases and promote multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary coordination and collaboration in the context of one health the interactions between Human, Animal and the Environment. Liberia has been credited for making significant progress.
During the four-day deliberations, participants are expected to review Liberia’s National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) implementation progress and challenges, conduct a midterm self-assessment scorecard using the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) 2.0 indicators, identify key Benchmark actions to implement in 2020 based on existing capacity levels and map key actions to available and anticipated resources.
With support from partners, Liberia supports IHR in its commitment to ensuring harmonious implementation of the Regional Disease Surveillance System Enhancement (RIDESSE) Project and also in furthering the ideals of One Health.
The International Health Regulations National Focal Persons at the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) will coordinate the execution of the meeting along with technical and financial support from Resolve to Save Lives, the World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), United States Center for Disease Control (US-CDC), USAID, the World Bank among others.
The Government of Liberia, according to the Director-General of NPHIL Tolbert Nyenswah, has over the past four years – since the 2014-2016 Ebola Outbreak – protected its population from frequent outbreaks of Diseases of Public Health Significance thus decreasing morbidity and mortality to these diseases.
It can be recalled that NPHIL and partners recently conducted refresher training and capacity for Port Health Officers to prevent, detect and respond to any importation of Diseases.