The Federal government has begun the second evaluation of the nation's health security potential through the Joint External Evaluation, JEE, for the core competencies of the International Health Regulations, IHR.
Nigeria is the second country in Africa and third globally to conduct an evaluation of its health security capability.
In a statement, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, said the IHR required core capacities are the subject of the second Joint External Evaluation, JEE, from Monday August 14 through 18, 2023.
According to the NCDC Director General, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, Nigeria is one of only a few nations to conduct a second round of the JEE using the JEE 3.0 tools in the wake of its initial JEE.
The JEE, a voluntary multi-sectoral process, is one of the four components of the IHR monitoring and evaluation framework. The process involves a diverse team of experts, collectively evaluating a nation's preparedness and response capacities across 19 technical areas, under the guidance of relevant Ministries, Departments, and Agencies.
Adetifa said the development underscores the holistic, multi-sectoral and all-of-government approach that is critical for national health security.
In 2017, Nigeria conducted her first JEE using the JEE 1.0 tool which gave a readiness score of 39 percent. Consequently, the 2018-2023 National Action Plan for Health Security, NAPHS, was developed to address identified gaps and recommendations from the 2017 evaluation.
As a follow-up to the 2018-2023 NAPHS implementation, this 2023 JEE will enable Nigeria to critically appraise the current situation by chronicling the progress so far and by identifying new/persisting gaps and opportunities. These insights will guide the development of the 2023-2028 NAPHS and ensure prioritized actions are included for interventions over the next five years.
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The external evaluators are a team of experts and partners who will validate the score from the recently completed internal assessment. This external validation phase of the JEE involves a comprehensive review of presentations, documents, policies, and systems for each technical area.
In addition, site visits will be conducted to national public health centres and institutes across the 19 technical areas.
Following the reviews of the technical areas, validated scores will be aggregated to determine Nigeria's 2023 JEE score which will signal our progress in detecting, assessing, reporting, and responding to public health events.
