Executive Summary
The mounting human and economic toll of COVID-19 has brought the challenge of regional disease surveillance and control to the forefront of the policy discourse around global public health. This report was commissioned in 2019, several months before the first cases of COVID-19 were identified. The rapid global spread of the virus over the following year prompted the team to adapt its analytical approach to reflect the evolving reality on the ground. The report’s findings identify the medium- and long-term investments necessary to build a comprehensive framework for monitoring, containing, and addressing infectious disease outbreaks. African countries have battled many outbreaks in the past, including several devastating Ebola virus disease epidemics and the recurrent ravages of cholera, yellow fever, and meningitis, among others. These outbreaks compound the persistent burden of endemic diseases such as malaria, typhoid, and HIV. However, the damage inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis exceeds all modern disease outbreaks in terms of the scope, extent, and persistence of its effects, which could undo decades of gains in public health and poverty reduction in countries across the region.