The Global Health Cluster in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Africa conducted a Health Cluster Coordination Virtual Exercise for countries in the region on 8 - 12 February 2021, supported by Training in Aid and implemented using REM-Systems. Participants are from global Health Cluster partners (iMMAP, International Medical Corps, Save the Children) and national partners (AFENET, Médecins d'Afrique), WHO regional offices (AFRO, EURO, SEARO) and WHO staff representing Algeria, Cameroon, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, South Sudan, Ukraine and Zimbabwe.
A collaborative design panel was brought together to develop and adapt the exercise materials. As with the pilot event in November 2020 for the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), the main objectives of the AFRO exercise was the identify and develop high-performing, dynamic and adaptable Health Cluster Teams. Building on recommendations from the previous event, to help standardize the experience for all participant groups, a virtual Training of Trainers (ToT) mini workshop was offered during the final week of preparations.
The operational settings for the simulation exercise is a landlocked country settings where longstanding power struggles exist between national stakeholders and there is generally a low-level of government capacity to deal with chronic food insecurity, internal population displacement and other development issues. An infectious disease outbreak of major concern hits the country and the cluster system must rapidly scale up to address escalating coordination issues. Against this backdrop, participants will join different Health Cluster Coordination Teams to coordinate the health preparedness and response.