By Ken Muthomi - Reporter
Kenya, May 02, 2026 - Civil society and community organisations across the continent have urged governments and other stakeholders to prioritise epidemic preparedness and disease surveillance, warning that failure to do so will weaken Africa’s ability to respond to disease outbreaks.
More than 20 organisations from at least 15 countries made the call during the launch of the Nairobi Declaration on African Health Security and Collaborative Disease Surveillance, held on April 30.
The organisations included Nigeria Health Watch, Speak Up Africa, 1DaySooner, and Resilience Action Network Africa, among others.
The declaration comes at a critical time when healthcare systems in African countries are facing recurrent disease outbreaks amid growing pressure from climate change, conflict, and displacement.
The groups noted that despite political attention on epidemic preparedness, underfunded surveillance systems and heavy reliance on external funding for preparedness continue to delay outbreak detection and response.
National governments and parliaments have been encouraged to fully integrate surveillance into national planning and budgeting processes, and to increase domestic financing by allocating at least 15 percent of national budgets to health.
Partners, including those in the private sector, have also been urged to provide long-term financing to support innovation in the continent’s healthcare ecosystem.
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Continental bodies, including the African Union and Africa CDC, have been encouraged to establish a biannual accountability mechanism to track member state progress on disease surveillance.
“We call on regional bodies to track progress through rigorous accountability frameworks. Transparent, regular reporting on preparedness is the only way to ensure our commitments translate into regional safety,” said Yaye Sophietou Diop, Director of Partnerships and Development at Speak Up Africa.
Executive Director of Resilience Action Network Africa, Aggrey Aluso, cautioned that failure to address funding and surveillance gaps puts vulnerable communities, especially those in marginalised areas, at heightened risk of preventable loss of life.
Diana Tibesigwa, Regional Advocacy and Policy Manager for East and West Africa at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), said the organisation will continue mobilising communities, raising awareness, and strengthening action at the grassroots level.
The organisations, along with other healthcare stakeholders, stressed the need for stronger coordination, collaboration, and accountability across the continent to ensure locally owned and sustainable systems are built.
“What is now needed, especially from this declaration, is to operationalise this model for surveillance so that we can have an extensive network of detection, surveillance, and genomic analysis of pathogens across African countries,” said Zacharia Kafuko, Africa Director at 1Day Sooner.