AfDB Approves $9.57m Grant to Boost Health Emergency Preparedness in Southern Africa
The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund has approved a grant of $9.57 million to help countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) strengthen regional health security and emergency preparedness.
Approved on 3 March 2026, the financing from the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group will support the Resilient Health Systems for Emergency Preparedness Project.
The initiative seeks to address long-standing weaknesses in health systems across the SADC region, which remain highly vulnerable to zoonotic diseases, cholera outbreaks and nutrition-related emergencies.
The project will focus on building human capacity through the training of 449 laboratory technicians, community health workers and trainers, including 269 women. It will also certify 35 nutrition coordinators and revise specialised curricula, benefiting around 240 students each year and helping to establish a sustainable regional skills base.
Infrastructure upgrades form a central component of the programme, with diagnostic, wastewater and environmental surveillance laboratories to be renovated and equipped in six beneficiary countries.
The project will modernise the Instituto Nacional de Saúde in Mozambique as a regional reference laboratory and strengthen the national blood bank in Lesotho. A mobile cross-border laboratory will also be deployed at strategic border points in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Kennedy Mbekeani, Director General for Southern Africa at the African Development Bank, said the operation would help address the persistent fragility of health systems in the region, improving preparedness and response to public health emergencies while strengthening long-term resilience.
