DJIBOUTI — August 25, 2026 — The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) is advancing efforts to strengthen regional health security through its Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience Programme for Eastern and Southern Africa, with new programme documentation published today.
The initiative focuses on improving the region’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies, particularly those that cross national borders. It addresses challenges including infectious-disease outbreaks, large movements of displaced people and refugees, and weaknesses within fragile health systems.
Financing for the programme involves the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), supporting efforts to strengthen preparedness and response capacity across participating countries.
The programme is particularly important for the Horn of Africa, where people regularly cross borders for trade, employment, migration, pastoral activities or because of conflict and humanitarian emergencies. Those movements can make it difficult for individual countries to contain infectious diseases without cooperation from their neighbors.
A regional approach can help governments improve disease surveillance, laboratory capacity, emergency-response systems and cross-border information sharing. Better coordination can also allow authorities to identify emerging health threats earlier and respond before outbreaks develop into wider regional emergencies.
The initiative demonstrates how regional integration can directly affect public health. Borders may define national jurisdictions, but diseases do not recognize them. An outbreak beginning in one country can quickly threaten neighboring communities when surveillance and response systems are not coordinated.
Strengthening health systems can also support economic integration. Major disease outbreaks can disrupt cross-border trade, transportation, tourism, schools and workplaces, creating economic consequences that extend far beyond the health sector.
For IGAD, improving regional preparedness therefore represents both a public-health and regional-resilience strategy.
The programme also complements wider African efforts to reduce dependence on emergency responses that arrive only after crises have escalated. Stronger laboratories, surveillance networks and coordinated emergency systems can give African institutions greater capacity to manage regional health threats.
As IGAD moves the programme forward, its success will depend on translating regional cooperation into stronger national and cross-border systems. For communities throughout the Horn of Africa, that could mean earlier detection of outbreaks, faster responses and a more resilient regional health network.