As COVID-19 demonstrated, international funding for disease surveillance systems is not sufficient in its scale, transparency, or integration to adequately protect the world against disease threats.
In addition, strong disease surveillance systems are fundamental to the strength of the health system as a whole. Insufficient intelligence on the volume, flow, and allocation of funding for disease surveillance restricts the ability of policymakers and funders to make evidence-based decisions on resource allocation that are based on population need and the health burden in their country.
Funders and policy makers needed to better understand what funding was already available and develop a strategy to improve the quantity and quality of funding available for disease surveillance.
SEEK developed a novel approach to estimating existing international and domestic funding flows to disease surveillance.
Based on our understanding of the existing funding landscape and engagement with experts, we developed key policy recommendations on how funding for disease surveillance can be elevated on the international agenda and facilitate concrete action moving forward. These findings and recommendations were tested and iterated with a wide set of high-level stakeholders, including government donors, WHO, the World Bank, the Global Fund, UNICEF, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Wellcome Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, and others, in addition to country-level and civil society representation.
SEEK organized and co-hosted a side-event during the World Health Summit (alongside the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Resolve to Save Lives, and the Government of Mozambique) that brought together key players to discuss actionable ways in which the quality and quantity of disease surveillance could be improved.
SEEK’s work supported concrete action among key partners in addressing gaps in the disease surveillance funding and policy landscape, including better tracking, integration, and scaling of existing funding.
Stemming from this work, major funders are exploring how to coordinate their funding better in the context of the G7 and G20 processes, and in negotiations on Financial Intermediary Fund for Pandemic Prevention.
Disease surveillance is an ongoing high-level priority for countries and funders: this is reflected in the core place it has taken in the Pandemic Pact, the Pandemic Fund, the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience framework, and other high-level initiatives since this analysis took place. The analysis that SEEK first conducted is now being updated on a yearly basis as a means to continue to provide an evidence base for these developing global health architectures.
