Territory administrators from all 10 territories of Kongo Central and all 5 territories of Kwango were trained in infectious disease management in 2018, under the One Health Workforce (OHW) project. A follow-up practical training was done in Year 1 of the OHW-NG project in the context of COVID-19.
In Year 2 of the One Health Workforce Next Generation project, AFROHUN DRC conducted a 5-day training workshop for another cohort of 22 territory administrators in Equateur, one of the most vulnerable provinces for zoonotic disease outbreaks, such as Ebola. Five experts oversaw the training in collaboration with the trained agents from the Ministry of Interior.
DRC has been facing several infectious disease outbreaks such as Ebola, yellow fever, cholera, COVID-19 and many others. Territory administrators are local leaders acting as government representatives at the territory level. They oversee management of all issues regarding the population they serve including outbreak management. Leadership is key in infectious disease management. Training territory administrators along with their technical team including district health officers, animal health officers, hygiene and environmental officers can strengthen collaboration in the management of health emergencies. Since 2018, all the territory administrators of Kongo Central (10 territory administrators) and Kwango (5 territory administrators) provinces of the country have benefited from this training.
The following competencies have been covered during this training: leadership and collaboration, risk analysis, infectious disease management, risk communication for community engagement, gender and one health and system thinking.
These competencies can help local leaders to effectively manage infectious disease outbreaks using the One Health approach.
This training conducted by experts coming from the ministries of health, animal health and interior provided knowledge in introduction to One Health, One Health competencies, risk analysis, infectious disease management, risk communication for community engagement.
The training was organized by the Ministry of Interior with support from AFROHUN.
“We have been managing outbreaks, but this is our first time to be trained. This training will be very helpful not only for me, but for all the territory administrators. We will lead differently this time.” Mr. Alain Elodi, Provincial Ministry of Interior.
“Ebola outbreaks are very common in my region, this training helped us to learn about risk analysis. This will help us to map all at risk areas and prepare in multidisciplinary teams to respond efficiently.” Mr. Crispin Mputu, territory administrator of Bikoro.
After this training, during Year 3 AFROHUN DRC is planning to implement a ToT for inspectors of the Ministry of Interior to be able to deliver this training to all the provinces of the country. This is also a sustainability approach to doing this work.