4th October 2022
Own Correspondent
The establishment of the Botswana Public Health institute(BPHI) allegedly signals the required high level commitment and leadership towards building the necessary capacity for health security and overall health system resilience by detecting new and emerging threats officials revealed.
It will play this critical role by strengthening scientific research and development and local laboratory and diagnostic capacities.
“The formation of Botswana Public Health institute(BPHI) is aligned to the best international practices that are aligned to the global call for action for nations to strengthen their local systems for effective scientifically driven responses. They should readily be able to produce reliable data to inform quality decision making to safeguard livelihoods,” said Edwin G. Dikoloti, Minister of Health.
He said, “The BPHI as a scientifically driven institute will consolidate public health functions to harness and promote local public health research and education. The growth of BHPI will definitely serve to promote indigenous knowledge to disease surveillance and patterns to inform building of resilient health care system.”
The Botswana Public Health institute(BPHI) will serve as a focus area for co-ordination of all elements of public health threats and emergency response, integrated surveillance aligned to the principles of one health and governance for effective resource utilization towards effective response to health emergencies.
It is intended to avert challenges like those experienced by the 2007 diarrhea outbreak, Dineo floods of 2017 accompanied by malaria outbreak and diarrhea outbreak amongst those under 5 years old.
The Public health laboratory will monitor surveillance systems, emergency preparedness and response, health promotion and disease prevention.
It will set and implement national priorities, focal point for international health regulations, develop human and physical capacities, co-ordinate resources to meet national health priorities, provide focused, centralized leadership and coordination, generate evidence for science based policies and monitor changing patterns and determinants of health and diseases.
“When public health functions are fragmented and spread across multiple government ministries or sectors, the results often include duplicated efforts, wasted resources, lack of leadership and accountability, slower response times to public health emergencies due to uncoordinated efforts, and reduced impact of programs intended to improve the health of the country’s population,” said Dr Lebapotswe Bahumi Tlale, Acting Executive Director of the Botswana Public Health Institute.
He said, “The BHPI endeavours to increase efficiency of outbreak detection and emergency response by bringing the essential public health functions together under one umbrella.”
It also aims to increase effectiveness by linking key components of public health functions such as surveillance, laboratory systems, emergency response, communications, and public health research.
The transition of National Health Laboratory to a National Public Health Laboratory highlighted the need for an NPHI in Botswana. Ministry of Health(MOH) formally requested the US CDC to assist with NPHI development, to launch in 2017.
Transition of National Health Laboratory to a National Public Health Laboratory highlighted the need for an NPHI in Botswana. Ministry of Health(MOH) formally requested the US CDC to assist with NPHI development, to launch in 2017.
Seed funding from IANPHI via CDC Atlanta amounting to 250,000 USD for 2016-2018 through NACA and subsequently a benchmarking trip to US-Atlanta led by DPS preventive and Director Public health. It resulted in a stakeholder meeting and a strategic planning workshop was held in Botswana which resulted in a five-year strategic and operational plan 2016-2021 (phased operationalization).
