Saturday, May 18, 2024
5/18/2024
The humanitarian community, and International Medical Corps (IMC) in particular, has learned valuable lessons from recent responses to PHEs, which can improve the local and global response to future outbreaks involving both novel, emerging, and re- emerging infectious diseases (ID). Through its prior involvement as a CDC grantee in the Global Emergency Response and Recovery Partner Engagement (GERRPE) cooperative agreement (CoAg), IMC worked with CDC to build both its own capacity and those of local partners to respond to PHEs ranging from cholera in Yemen to Ebola in DRC to COVID- 19. Among the lessons learned over the past 5 years include the importance of capacity building – especially human resource capacity. Frontline providers, both national and international, must be empowered with specific knowledge and skills in order to protect themselves and support vulnerable populations in a wide variety of different types of PHEs. IMC developed a Core Competency Framework (CCF) and Operational Readiness Plan (ORP) for both general humanitarian responders and health workers specifically, which it used to construct and pilot test dedicated training modules for frontline staff in different PHEs. During this new CoAg, GERRPE II, IMC looks forward to developing CCFs for other cadres of frontline staff integral to PHEs, including staff working in WASH, nutrition, and risk communication and community engagement (RCCE). This latter piece has proven especially important in recent PHEs, as it is all too easy for misinformation to spread in the face of an invisible disaster such as the outbreak of an infectious disease, yet all the more critical to have a well informed population in order to contain the outbreak and reduce the impact on communities. In order to communicate risk in a reliable manner, however, we must have high-quality data on the risk itself by ensuring rigorous public health surveillance. Furthermore, in order to engage communities effectively, we must also collect data on their needs and perceptions, and the best waysto communicate key public health messaging. As such, IMC will use GERRPE II to build upon the prior public health and clinical data collection toolkits developed in the original CoAg to create a mix of qualitative and quantitative rapid needs assessment and community engagement tools thatcan be applied in a wide variety of PHEs to better inform the response. The final lesson learned is that collaboration is vital to the success of a PHE response. Good coordination results in setting common goals, clear messaging, and effective distribution of resources, while poor coordination can lead to duplication of resources, efforts, erosion of community trust, and even further harm. In this new CoAg, IMC will build upon the successful collaborations established during the prior CoAg to coordinate with CDC, national governments, intergovernmental agencies, and non-governmental resource partners and community-based organizations to strengthen and expand both local and regional capacity to prevent, mitigate, prepare for and respond to PHEs. IMC and its resource partners will leverage their operations in over 30 countries currently experiencing or at high risk for future humanitarian emergencies, in a well coordinated, effective, and efficient manner to engage local communities and reduce health inequities and disparities across target populations. The consortium brings together IMC as the Prime applicant, Brown University as the sub-grantee, and strong regional humanitarian actors, Africa Humanitarian Action (AHA), and Mercy Malaysia (MM) as exclusive Resource partners. In addition, the consortium will also benefit from the inclusion of Internews, a global media and communications organization, as an exclusive Resource partner, thereby ensuring the project is led by a team with the capability and competency to execute the proposed activities collaboratively and with maximum impact
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
