The Board of Directors of the concessional arm of the African Development Bank Group has approved a $9.57 million grant to support countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to strengthen regional health security and emergency preparedness.
The financing, approved on 3 March 2026 through the African Development Fund, will fund the Resilient Health Systems for Emergency Preparedness Project, an initiative designed to improve the capacity of health systems across Southern Africa to respond to public health and nutrition emergencies.
According to the Bank, the project will focus on strengthening human resources, upgrading laboratory infrastructure, and enhancing cross-border disease surveillance across the region.
As part of the initiative, 449 laboratory technicians, community health workers, and trainers will be trained, including 269 women, with the programme integrating gender considerations, climate change adaptation, and the One Health approach to public health.
In addition, 35 nutrition coordinators, including 21 women, will receive specialised certification from institutions that focus on nutrition and gender in emergency situations. Revised academic curricula are also expected to benefit approximately 240 students annually, helping build a sustainable regional pool of experts in nutrition and emergency response.
The project will also support the renovation and equipping of diagnostic laboratories, wastewater monitoring facilities, and environmental surveillance laboratories in six participating countries.
A key component of the infrastructure upgrade includes the modernisation of the Instituto Nacional de Saúde in Mozambique to serve as a regional reference laboratory. The initiative will also strengthen the national blood bank in Lesotho.
To improve regional coordination, the programme will establish a framework for model cross-border laboratories and deploy a mobile cross-border laboratory at two strategic border points in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
“This operation aims to address the persistent fragility of health systems in the SADC, which remain vulnerable to zoonotic outbreaks and cholera epidemics, high malnutrition rates and limited human resources, as well as inadequate emergency preparedness,” said Kennedy Mbekeani, Director General for Southern Africa at the African Development Bank.
The Bank said the project forms part of broader efforts to improve regional health resilience and strengthen the capacity of countries to respond quickly to future public health emergencies.
