Public health emergency operations centres in Africa: A cross-sectional study assessing the implementation status of core components and areas for improvement, December 2021

Objective: To assess implementation status of Public Health Emergency Operations Centres (PHEOCs) in all countries in Africa. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Fifty-four national PHEOC focal points in Africa responded to an online survey between May and November 2021. Included variables aimed to assess capacities for each of the four PHEOC core components. To assess the PHEOCs' functionality, criteria were defined from among the collected variables by expert consensus based on PHEOC operations' prioritisation. We report results of the descriptive analysis, including frequencies of proportions. Results: A total of 51 (93%) African countries responded to the survey. Among these, 41 (80%) have established a PHEOC. Twelve (29%) of these met 80% or more of the minimum requirements and were classified as fully functional. Twelve (29%) and 17 (41%) PHEOCs that met 60%–79% and below 60% of the minimum requirements were classified as functional and partially functional, respectively. Conclusions: Countries in Africa made considerable progress in setting up and improving functioning of PHEOCs. One-third of the responding countries with a PHEOC have one fulfilling at least 80% of the minimum requirements to operate the critical emergency functions. There are still several African countries that either do not have a PHEOC or whose PHEOCs only partially meet these minimal requirements. This calls for significant collaboration across all stakeholders to establish functional PHEOCs in Africa.Please see the README document (''README_StatusOfPHEOCInAfrica''.txr).A standardized self-assessment tool was developed based on Annex 9 of the PHEOC framework to determine the PHEOC minimum requirements. The tool encompasses 31 indicators across the PHEOC core components to assess the implementation status and existing capacities. The response to each variable allowed for a yes or no answer and a comment section to provide additional information if any. In May 2021, the survey tool was shared with MS and was administered via an online KoBo Toolbox and MS completed the questionnaire and submitted it online. The online survey questionnaire was shared with 54 MS in Africa (47 of the 54 are MS of the WHO African Region). Data were collected between May – November 2021