Global Health Security Agenda Newsletter June 2021
We have now reached the midway point of the year and the midway point in our role as the GHSA Steering Group Chair. While some countries are showing signs of optimism that we can emerge from COVID-19, the state of the world is still that of a pandemic.
As our countries and organizations continue to respond, the Global Health Security Agenda continues to strive towards building and sustaining these health security capacities.
At this crucial point, GHSA participating members are strongly encouraged to submit member Commitments and Stories of Impact to the GHSA Secretariat. Your collaboration and commitments are important.
We are pleased to welcome the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) as the newest GHSA member organization. CARPHA is active in multiple GHSA Action Packages and is currently the AP Lead for Biosafety and Biosecurity. The Steering Group was honored to welcome Dr. Joy St. John, executive Director of CARPHA, for her warm remarks at the June 2021 Steering Group Meeting. We are glad to have CARPHA as an official GHSA Member approved by the Steering Group!
The GHSA has been active in several global forums recently, including the 74th World Health Assembly, where the Thailand Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Health delivered an intervention on behalf of the GHSA. Furthermore, the Steering Group recently concluded the 2nd GHSA Steering Group Meeting of 2021. The Steering Group convenes 3 times per year to discuss progress and ensure that the direction of the GHSA remains aligned with the target and objectives. The June 2021 SG Meeting featured multiple presentations from GHSA stakeholders including the Action Packages, Task Forces, the Secretariat, the Permanent Advisors, and Steering Group countries and organizations. Among the many highlights of the meeting include the Steering Group’s endorsement of the Strategic Communications Plan to facilitate communication and coordination internally and externally.
One of the important topics that remain for this year is identifying and confirming the new GHSA Steering Group Chair to serve during 2022. The GHSA Secretariat will distribute Expression of Interest Forms to the focal points of all GHSA members. The Chair encourages you to submit these completed forms, which also include roles as a Steering Group Member and participation in Action Packages. Taking initiative by assuming GHSA leadership roles is important to ensuring that the capacity-building efforts of GHSA continues. We look forward to hearing back from you soon!
Warm regards,
GHSA Thailand
The 2nd GHSA Steering Group Meeting in 2021
Thailand as the GHSA Chair held the 2nd GHSA Steering Group meeting 2021 virtually on 7, 8, and 9 June 2021. This virtual event brought together not only Steering Group members, but also Task Forces, Action Packages’ leads and relevant Action Packages’ members. The meeting discussed, among others: GHSA progress and updates since January 2021, synergizing GHSA’s cooperative efforts with Tripartite organizations, new Task Force on Research and Development, Proposal for new Action Package on Legal Preparedness, etc.
Please check the website in early July 2021 when the meeting report will be made available
Call for expression of interests for the GHSA Steering Group Chair in 2022 (1-year term) and as the 2022-2023 Rotating Steering Group Members (2-year terms)
The Steering Group invites all GHSA Members to submit your expression of interest (EOI) forms for 2022 GHSA leadership positions and roles.
The GHSA Steering Group especially welcomes interest in those who wish to serve as the GHSA Steering Group Chair in 2022 (1-year term) and those who wish to serve as the 2022-2023 Rotating Steering Group Members (2-year terms).
Your new and continued participation in the GHSA Action Packages is also highly encouraged and appreciated!
Please submit your EOI to the Secretariat at ghsa.indonesia@gmail.com; pak.ghsasec@nih.org.pk; and thai.ghsacounit@gmail.com by July 21, 2021.
Welcome CARPHA to Our GHSA Community
GHSA warmly welcomes CARPHA officially as the newest member of the GHSA. CARPHA has been a very familiar name in the GHSA community because it has long been active and involved in the GHSA activities, particularly in Biosafety and Biosecurity Action Package. We do hope that by being the official member of the GHSA, CARPHA will play a more significant role in the GHSA and serve as a valuable driving force to enhance global health security preparedness capacity.
AP Activities and Profile
To realize the GHSA vision of a world safe and secure from global health threats posed by infectious diseases, the GHSA currently has eight Action Packages (APs): AMR, Biosafety and Biosecurity, Laboratory System, Surveillance, Zoonotic Diseases, Immunization, Workforce Development, Sustainable Financing. These APs represent multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral commitments with a strong focus on specific GHSA objectives and targets. In this and subsequent editions, we will highlight all their collective efforts, activities and action plans to accelerate the implementation of IHR (2005) and improve global health security.
For Sustainable Financing, please contact the GHSA SFP AP on ghsasustainablefinancingap@gmail.com and check GHSA official website.
Launch of New R&D Task Force
GHSA proudly presents a new Task Force on top of our existing three Task Forces. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that a well-organized and effective R&D is critically important in facilitating discovery of new vaccines and drugs, as well as other health devices. Under the lead of The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), a member of the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium (GHSAC), GHSA is pleased to announce the launch of Research & Development (R&D) Task Force on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 from 07:30 to 09:00 EST/18:30 to 20:00 ICT. This Task Force will serve as a platform to convene GHSA members and stakeholders to explore how R&D of medical countermeasures factor into national and regional health preparedness plans. As a one-year pilot program, the initiative will explore R&D capacities as a critical element of health preparedness and develop a roadmap as well as a package of metrics for measuring country R&D capacities. GHTC is facilitating the R&D Task Force kick-off meeting and if you or a colleague wish to participate, please email Philip Kenol (Pkenol@ghtcoalition.org).
Launch of New R&D Task Force
GHSA proudly presents a new Task Force on top of our existing three Task Forces. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that a well-organized and effective R&D is critically important in facilitating discovery of new vaccines and drugs, as well as other health devices. Under the lead of The Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), a member of the Global Health Security Agenda Consortium (GHSAC), GHSA is pleased to announce the launch of Research & Development (R&D) Task Force on Wednesday, June 30, 2021 from 07:30 to 09:00 EST/18:30 to 20:00 ICT. This Task Force will serve as a platform to convene GHSA members and stakeholders to explore how R&D of medical countermeasures factor into national and regional health preparedness plans. As a one-year pilot program, the initiative will explore R&D capacities as a critical element of health preparedness and develop a roadmap as well as a package of metrics for measuring country R&D capacities. GHTC is facilitating the R&D Task Force kick-off meeting and if you or a colleague wish to participate, please email Philip Kenol (Pkenol@ghtcoalition.org).
What’s New on Our GHSA Website
Resource webpage development
To enhance the visibility of the GHSA’s global contributions and easy accessibility of the relevant resources, GHSA secretariat is working to develop a separate section/web page in the GHSA website. This will maintain the GHSA resources, tools, best practices, experiences and lessons learnt by the member countries and organizations.
Pakistan outreach for COVID-19 vaccinations
National Institute of Health, Pakistan has facilitated the state-of- the-art outreach for COVID-19 vaccination for elderly people through mobile teams in the Capital to minimize their unnecessary exposure at the health care settings.
We welcome contributions of news stories, articles and photo stories from our members for our GHSA Newsletter. Please contact our secretariat team for any contributions you wish to make at:
thai.ghsacounit@gmail.com, pak.ghsasec@nih.org.pk, ghsa.indonesia@gmail.com.
Let’s conduct an Intra-Action Review!
Several countries have carried out the Intra Action Review (IAR) which can provide an overview of the success and improvement efforts needed in handling COVID-19. The Intra-Action Review (IAR) is an additional tool to increase health security capacity in member countries. Contact WHO in your country to conduct IAR.
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