News
14 JUN 2024
Experts’ deployment to the Pacific Islands to support submission for Pandemic Fund grants
In March 2024, the World Bank (WB) enlisted CIDER to provide technical assistance and hands-on proposal writing support to the governments of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands for submission to the Pandemic Fund’s second call for proposals. The Pandemic Fund (PF), hosted by the WB with the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the technical lead, finances critical investments to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response capacities, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries.
For 8 weeks through mid-March to mid-May, CIDER, in partnership with the Duke-NUS Centre for Outbreak Preparedness (COP) and strongly supported by the WB, worked closely with the respective country teams to complete their proposals. Intensive preparations and extensive assessments were carried out, including week-long in-country visits in April to engage with government, professional and community stakeholders. It was a jam-packed, hectic but incredibly fruitful period. New partnerships and friendships were established with the experts from COP, with the PNG and Solomon Is working tirelessly and seamlessly together to ensure the submissions were successfully completed by the deadline on May 17.
Solomon Islands
The mission team from CIDER and COP worked closely with Permanent Secretary Pauline McNeil and her talented team from the Ministry to create a submission supporting the country’s priority needs to build capacity for future pandemics. If successful, the substantial funding received from the PF will enable Solomon Islands to develop essential infrastructure, manpower, plus laboratory and surveillance systems to better serve endemic issues, and lead to more robust pandemic preparedness and response.
Papua New Guinea
CIDER and COP supported the National Department of Health Papua New Guinea (NDoH PNG), led by Mr. Ken Wai, in drafting the proposal for submission to the Pandemic Fund. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the National Department of Agriculture (NDoA) also came on board, forging strong collaborative efforts to ensure alignment of human and animal health priorities. Understanding the country’s critical areas of need from key stakeholders ensured that the proposal comprehensively addressed the challenges and gaps requiring funding support to improve the resilience of the country’s health system, and ability to respond to future pandemics.
During this process, Prof. Dale Fisher also caught up with a colleague from decades ago, Prof Isi Kevau, further enhancing collaboration and insights.
Good luck Solomon Islands and PNG! We await the decision in October.