Nigeria strengthens health security through participation in JEE 3.0

In line with the International Health Regulations (IHR) requirement which mandates member countries to periodically appraised their preparedness to respond to public health emergencies, the Nigeria government has announced its readiness to conduct the third National Joint External Evaluations (JEE 3.0).

The move the government says would help the country prioritise global and national health security.

Joint External Evaluations (JEE) assesses country-specific status and progress in developing the required capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health threats.

Announcing Nigeria’s decision in a statement released on Thursday, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention highlights benefits of pervious JEE investments. He said earlier investment accounted for the successes recorded in national responses to diseases of pandemic significance like Ebola in 2014, Mpox in 2017, and the novel SARS-COV2 (COVID-19) in 2019.

According to the statement, COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in health equity globally and the JEE 3.0 would incorporates lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding that the evaluation will help measure Nigeria’s progress in addressing previous recommendations and identify new areas for improvement considering evolving national and global health threats.

The statement listed high-level advocacy briefing on JEE, Training of IHR focal leads on the self-assessment process/tools and a 5-day self-assessment Workshop. Other activities lined up for the National JEE 3.0 by external evaluators are self-assessment validation workshop and 5-day JEE Workshop.

The JEE 2.0 conducted in 2017 recommended development of the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) 2018-2022 to address identified gaps. The NAPHS plan was a multi-sectoral plan that involved over fifteen Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs). Since implementing NAPHS, Nigerian has achieved; the Passage of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) Bill and the digitisation of the national disease surveillance network. Other successes includes the development of a risk communication and community engagement framework across all levels among other successes.