African Development Bank Group funds regional health resilience drive in Southern Africa

The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a $9.57 million grant to support countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in strengthening regional health security and emergency preparedness.

Approved on 3 March 2026, the financing from the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group, will fund the Resilient Health Systems for Emergency Preparedness Project. The initiative aims to strengthen the resilience and capacity of health systems across the SADC region to respond more effectively to public health and nutrition emergencies.

The project includes the training of 449 laboratory technicians, community health workers and trainers, including 269 women, using tailored approaches that mainstream gender considerations, climate change adaptation and the One Health approach. In addition, around 35 nutrition coordinators, including 21 women, from training institutions specialising in nutrition and gender in emergencies will receive certification. Revised curricula are expected to benefit approximately 240 students annually, helping to create a sustainable regional pool of expertise in nutrition and gender-responsive emergency management.

Diagnostic laboratories, wastewater and environmental surveillance laboratories in six beneficiary countries will be renovated and equipped as part of the central component on infrastructure upgrade. The project will also modernise the Instituto Nacional de Saúde in Mozambique to serve as a regional reference laboratory and strengthen the national blood bank in Lesotho. A regional framework for model cross-border laboratories will be established, alongside a mobile cross-border laboratory to be deployed at two strategic border points in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

“This operation aims to address the persistent fragility of health systems in the SADC, which remain vulnerable to zoonotic outbreaks and cholera epidemics, high malnutrition rates and limited human resources, as well as inadequate emergency preparedness,” said Kennedy Mbekeani, African Development Bank’s Director General for Southern Africa.