TITLE:
REDISSE in Benin and Lessons Learned for the Management of Public Health Emergencies after Five Years of Implementation
AUTHORS:
Fidelia Hinson, Arthur Dagan, Dorine Laura Danmitondé, Blaise Hounyo, Isidore Domanou, David Houéto
KEYWORDS:
Public Health Emergency Events, Preparedness and Response, Capitalization, REDISSE, Benin
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Epidemiology,
Vol.14 No.3,
August
6,
2024
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Benin was embarked on phase 3 of the REDISSE Benin project (Regional Disease Surveillance Systems Enhancement) which began in 2018. The objectives were in five key components namely, Surveillance and health information; Laboratory capacity building; Emergency preparedness and response; Human resources management for effective disease surveillance and epidemic preparedness; and Institutional Capacity Building, Project Management, Coordination and Advocacy. After five years of implementation, this study aimed at the documentation of lessons learned and best practices. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Apart from individual semi-structured interviews, a thematic workshops bringing together the project’s main stakeholders recruited on an exhaustive way by component to identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and propose improvement mechanisms to be taken into account by the sector. Criteria were set up and used to validate best practices and lessons learned. Results: A total 54 (Surveillance workshop), 47 (Preparedness & response workshop), 53 (Human Resources workshop), 26 (Laboratories workshop) participated to the thematic workshops, and five interviews. The good practices (33: 9 for animal health, 7 for human health and 17 crosscutting) and lessons learned (10: 3 for animal health and 7 for human health) have been identified and have been the subject, depending on the case, of proposals for improvement or conditions necessary for their maintenance. Discussion: The richness of a project lies not only in the immediate achievement of its results, but also and above all, in its usefulness for similar interventions, whether in the local, regional, national or international context. It is in this context that the REDISSE project has set out to make public the various lessons learned and best practices from the implementation of its activities over a period of some five consecutive years.