Project Title
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EAC Regional Network of Public Health Reference Laboratories for Communicable Diseases (Mobile laboratories)
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Project Period
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Start Date: 2017
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End Date: 2024
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Grant To EAC ($)
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- Direct grant
- Total amount = Euros 25 million
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Donor
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German Development Bank – KfW
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Project Goal
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To strengthen diagnostic capacities of Partner States National Public Health Reference Laboratories to rapidly detect and respond to Communicable Diseases with potential for cross border outbreaks.
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Project Approach
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- Procure mobile laboratory units, fully equipped,
- Train laboratory experts as trainers,
- Procure laboratory reagent and consumables,
- Provide technical guidance &
- Harmonize policies, guidelines & procedures
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Implementing Agencies and Development Partners
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- Project Executing Agency (PEA) = EAC Secretariat
- Financing partner = German Development Bank (KfW)
- Implementing partners = Partner State’ National Public Health Reference Laboratories (Total 6)
- Technical consultant = Bernhard-Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM)
- Procurement Consultants = GOPA Infra (Phase I) and GFA (Phase II)
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Project Objectives
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- Coordination = EAC Secretariat and Partner States health policies and guidelines laboratory
- Mapping = of diagnostic capacity gaps and filling the gaps through procurement of equipment, training of health personnel and provision of technical consultancy &
- Outbreak response = to emergency through field deployments, test procurement and trainings
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Project Achievements
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- Procurement - (9) mobile laboratory units and 18 vehicles and deployment in Partner States,
- Trainings of experts; 12 laboratory TOTs, 12 bioengineers, IATA (about 70), drivers and ICT experts,
- Outbreak responses - to Ebola, Rift valley fever, dengue, Covid-19 etc in the EAC Region.
- Regional coordination - policy dialogues through bi-annual meetings of the Expert Working Group and Regional Steering Committee
- EQA Schemes - enrolment of the mobile laboratory network in EQA scheme (INSTAD)
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Other Project Activities
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- Travel and Trade - Facilitation of regional travels and trade - across the EAC borders through strengthening of the Port health diagnosis during COVID-19 Pandemic
- Publications - At least two scientific papers e.g., commentary mobile labs for SAR-Cov-2 diagnostics: What Europe could learn from EAC to ensure trade in times of border closures)
- Regional scientific studies - Partner States on COVID-19 RDT validation and Sequencing studies, among others.
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Challenges
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- EAC Procurement - the EAC procurement process is long and not favorable for emergency responses, - delay in clearing donated items
- Sustainability and integration - of the mobile laboratories into the existing establishment in some Partner States, in terms of national budgets, health priorities and retention of trained experts
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Recommendations
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- Establishment of efficient emergency procurement mechanism for laboratory consumables and diagnostics in the EAC region
- Expansion strategy and inclusion of DRC with possible procurement of additional mobile laboratory units, training and budget reallocations.
- Strategy to fully integrate mobile laboratory framework into the NPHLs, national budgets and health priorities.
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