ECOWAS launches the pilot of the novel ‘ECOWAS One Health Leadership Course’ for pandemic preparedness and response at the University of Ghana School of Public Health

In an effort to improve the regional One Health-oriented pandemic preparedness and response system, ECOWAS agencies have joined forces to further develop the public health workforce in the region with a new innovative training course, developed with the support of Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the European Union (EU).

The University of Ghana School of Public Health has announced the launch of the inaugural ECOWAS One Health Leadership Course on 17th July 2023. This significant course, spanning over 10 days, is specifically tailored for public health professionals from ECOWAS Member States who are actively involved in pandemic prevention and response efforts in different institutions within the region.

The course, which is a flagship initiative of ECOWAS’ specialized agency for public health, the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), with its Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC) in cooperation with the Regional Animal Health Centre (RAHC) and the Directorate of Environment of the ECOWAS Commission, aims to promote the One Health agenda in the region by fostering cross-sectoral collaboration at the human-animal-environment interface among the different relevant sectors at regional and national levels and facilitate the development of cross-border professional networks.

Worldwide, zoonotic diseases (transmitted from animals to humans), comprise a large percentage of all newly identified infectious diseases. One Health is a collaborative approach to health, which recognizes that humans and animals live in a shared environment and there is added value to be gained by working together on issues at the interface of different sectors.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines One Health as “an approach to designing and implementing programmes, policies, legislation and research in which multiple sectors communicate and work together to achieve better public health outcomes”. This approach has paramount significance for the ECOWAS region, which is facing new and recurrent outbreaks of infectious diseases of zoonotic and environmental origin.

The ECOWAS One Health Leadership Course has been meticulously designed in collaboration with the Institute of Global Health at the University of Heidelberg and Health Focus GmbH, as part of GIZ's Regional Programme Support to Pandemic Prevention in the ECOWAS region (RPPP2), in close partnership with the regional institutions.

The course promises to be an engaging and interactive experience for all participants, covering the topics of effective leadership and management skills and tools, One Health, interinstitutional communication and coordination, and risk communication for effective epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response in four modules.

The University of Ghana School of Public Health is piloting the course over the coming 2 weeks for English-speaking professionals of the ECOWAS region. The French-speaking course will be piloted at the Institut Régional de Santé Publique (IRSP) in Ouidah, Benin, from 21 August to 1 September 2023.

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