Lab Matters Fall 2020 | Page 18

APHL Receives New Funding for Kenya Initiatives
GLOBAL HEALTH

Making an Impact : APHL Global Laboratory Leadership Efforts

by Ralph Timperi , MPH , senior advisor , Lab Practice and Management and Sherrie Staley , MPH , deputy director , Global Health
For several decades , APHL contributions to global public health laboratory leadership have been at the forefront of efforts to strengthen national public health laboratory networks . Early efforts included development of guidelines for national laboratory strategic planning and policy development , and twinning partnerships between international public health laboratories and APHL member state public health laboratories . In this challenging time , APHL still continues to develop and implement initiatives to strengthen laboratory leadership .
Development of a comprehensive competency-building curriculum for laboratory professionals is proceeding , even during the COVID-19 pandemic . In collaboration with an international advisory group with representatives from APHL , the World Health Organization ( WHO ), the World Organisation for Animal Health ( OIE ), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO ), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ), and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
( ECDC ), the Global Laboratory Leadership Program is to be launched in early 2021 . Additionally , in a partnership with BD , APHL is providing its widely used Foundations of Laboratory Leadership and Management curriculum to develop an introductory , online laboratory management and leadership course working with the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan .
Competent laboratory leadership at all levels of a system — local , district , provincial and national — is essential to assuring the quality and cost efficiency of public health and clinical laboratory services . And laboratory services provide the data necessary to guide national planning and response to public health emergencies , as well as effective care , treatment and prevention of human and animal diseases . These APHL knowledge and skill resources are especially important to the continual improvements in low and middle-income country laboratory systems . n
Faith Chepkemoi , Rufus Nyaga and Edwin Ochieng , the APHL Kenya team , celebrates new funding opportunity for Kenya initiatives

APHL Receives New Funding for Kenya Initiatives

APHL was recently awarded the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) bilateral Cooperative Agreement Expanding Efforts and Strategies to Protect and Improve Public Health in Kenya as an opportunity to continue improvement of Kenya ’ s public health laboratory system under the Global Health Security Agenda ( GHSA ). Activities of interest for this award include :
• COVID-19 response efforts
• Laboratory capacity improvement
• Strengthening the specimen transportation network
• Supporting surveillance of top priority diseases .
Congratulations to the APHL Kenya team on this major accomplishment !
FLLM trainings are conducted in Ethiopia before the pandemic
16 LAB MATTERS Fall 2020
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