Strengthening Cameroon’s One Health capacities for pandemic preparedness and response

Located in the Congo Basin, Cameroon grapples with regional instability, porous national borders, natural disasters, and large-scale movement within the country, including more than 2 million displaced people. All of these factors exacerbate the country’s risk of epidemics. Severe flooding in the Sahel, for example, led to a resurgence of cholera cases in Cameroon. Additionally, the country's people are coming into increasing contact with wildlife, due to factors such as hunting, deforestation, logging, and mining, increasing the risk of epizootics.

In response to the complexity of its public health landscape, Cameroon’s project emphasizes multisectoral collaboration. The project is led by the Ministry of Public Health, in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection, and Sustainable Development, the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, and the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries, and Animal Industries. It will receive support from three implementing entities: FAO, UNICEF, and the World Bank. 

Project objectives

With the support of partners and the Pandemic Fund, Cameroon seeks, over three years, to reduce the health, social, and economic impacts of public health emergencies by strengthening pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR).  

Expected outcomes

Successful implementation of Cameroon’s project will mean that the country is able to:

• Improve One Health early warning and notification systems 
• Upgrade cross-sectoral laboratory systems 
• Enhance integrated response capacity for public health emergencies
• Strengthen collaboration for effective PPR.