JP PREPAREDNESS - GUINEA

This twelve month project is proposed by a group of five agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP and WHO) which were more actively involved in the fight against Ebola virus disease in Guinea. While the project addresses lessons learned from past experiences during the Ebola crisis, reference is also made to current ongoing efforts to build the necessary emergency preparedness capacity required in order to efficiently respond to future health threats and other humanitarian emergencies. This project comes in response to a series of critical gaps currently perceived as real threats to the health security of the country. More specifically, the proposal refers to the eight Lesson Learned Exercise (LLE) recommendations by MPTF. A particular attention will be given to the country’s high epidemic-prone disease areas with low coverage.

The following priority activities will be conducted in any efforts to:

• Improve the country’s community-based surveillance and early detection/warning systems;
• Strengthen the local community health preparedness and case management for patients;
• Avail a minimal service package to health facilities
• Integrate logistics aspects in the response preparation;
• Increase community engagement in target zones;
• Conduct joint stress tests and simulation activities for the national contingency plan and other pandemic response tools at national and community/cross-border level;
• Strengthen the operational capacity of locally-based rapid response teams to respond in case of a health outbreak.

In the end, it is expected that the project will significantly have contributed to sustaining the  inter-agency strategic and technical coordination of the health emergency/humanitarian response through the existing interagency coordination structure (Comité Permanent Inter-agence - CoPIA) while also promoting the operationalization and domestication of the national disaster management and multi-risk contingency plans as well as a full ownership of the general aspects of the emergency response coordination by the Government in future.

The Project aims to promote synergy and durable cooperation amongst all humanitarian actors for a greater preparedness and to ensure that the country’s emergency response plans and other coordination mechanisms are reliable and their capacity to deliver in the event of a health outbreak has been fully tested for efficiency.