The devastating COVID-19 pandemic experience made governments across the world confront the need for a strong national disease surveillance system and response. The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), in the forefront of Bangladesh’s pandemic response, wanted to assess the existing disease surveillance system as a first step toward improving its strength, responsiveness, and effectiveness. At the request of DGHS Communicable Disease Control, BHB took the lead in:
- Describing government and other stakeholder surveillance activities
- Identifying gaps in the early warning system for emerging diseases
- Determining how data is used for planning, programming, and policy decisions and challenges and opportunities for its effective use
- Identifying the inputs needed to make the surveillance system effective for disease control and forecasting and for signaling future epidemics
- Recommending policy and program measures to strengthen the surveillance system and consulting with officials to develop an action plan
BHB hired a consultant who, after completing the assignment, incorporated feedback received during a multistakeholder workshop into the draft report and submitted the final report on December 26, 2021. On the same day, the Line Director of CDC responded by an email acknowledging the receipt of the final report. Thereby, the TA has been completed with due date.
