USAID’s Global Health Security Program has invested more than $1.1 billion to strengthen the capacities of partner countries to reduce the risk and impact of epidemic-prone infectious disease threats and outbreaks. These investments have been in projects implemented by a wide variety of partners, including non-governmental organizations, U.S. and host-country universities, the private sector, multilateral organizations, research institutions, and various local partners.

Breakthrough Action

Breakthrough ACTION ignites collective action and encourages people to adopt healthier behaviors and reduce risky behaviors, by forging, testing, and scaling up new and hybrid approaches to social and behavior change (SBC) and assist countries to build their capacity to plan and implement effective and responsive risk communication and community engagement interventions. Firmly grounded in proven practices, Breakthrough ACTION works in partnership with governments, civil society, and communities around the world to implement creative and sustainable SBC programming, nurture SBC champions, mainstream new techniques and technologies, and advocate strategic and sustained investment in SBC.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)

USAID supports the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations’ (CEPI) mission is to stimulate and accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable access to these vaccines for people during outbreaks. USAID investment is used to support CEPI’s vital vaccine development programmes against its current priority diseases: Lassa fever, Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Nipah, Chikungunya, Rift Valley Fever, and Ebola. The investment also helps advance innovative vaccine platform technologies for rapid vaccine development against unknown pathogens (termed ‘Disease X’), which are already in use to develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19.

Core Group Polio Project (CGPP)

CGPP is a multi-country, multi-partner initiative providing financial support and on-the-ground technical guidance and support to strengthen partner country efforts to eradicate polio. USAID’s Global Health Security program is leveraging this long-standing support to eradicate polio by strengthening multisectoral partnerships and expanding community-based surveillance and engagement.

Emergency Supply Chains

Through multiple supply chain partners, USAID supports partner country governments and stakeholders to prepare national supply chains for emergencies. Through the creation of an adaptable emergency supply chain framework, countries are now able to prepare for, and have a plan in place to respond to, infectious disease outbreaks. USAID works with partners to put in place an accompanying playbook that helps guide the country through a variety of infectious disease outbreak scenarios, including outbreaks of unknown pathogens (“Disease X”). The playbook and framework are solidified through a simulation exercise where government, donors and other stakeholders come together to rehearse a response, ultimately leading to a supply chain prepared for outbreaks of all kinds.

UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

USAID partners with the UN FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases to build critical capacity in partner countries to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks of zoonotic disease. FAO supports USAID’s Global Health Security investments through zoonotic disease preparedness and response, strengthening national laboratory systems, improving biosafety and biosecurity, scaling up workforce development, and reducing antimicrobial resistance.

Infectious Disease Detection and Surveillance (IDDS)

The USAID-funded IDDS project supports countries in detecting priority diseases and antimicrobial resistance through building national and subnational capacities to improve diagnostic networks and surveillance systems. This assistance adheres to the holistic One Health approach, which recognizes that people, animals and their shared environment are interconnected.

International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network, with 190 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and around 17 million volunteers worldwide. USAID provides funding to IFRC to engage their global network of community-based volunteers to support USAID’s investments in infectious diseases. Through IFRC, USAID supports the efforts of partner countries to take effective, sustainable action to improve infectious disease prevention and control efforts. By strengthening community-based surveillance, improving community engagement and working hand in hand with leaders and local stakeholders, countries are better prepared for infectious disease threats.

Medicines, Technologies, and Pharmaceutical Services (MTaPS)

The USAID-funded MTaPS program aims to help low- and middle-income countries strengthen their pharmaceutical systems to ensure sustainable access to and appropriate use of safe, effective, quality-assured, and affordable essential medicines and pharmaceutical services. As a core part of its work, MTaPS supports USAID’s efforts under the Global Health Security Agenda to combat antimicrobial resistance, a growing threat to the efficacy of treatments worldwide. These efforts are directed toward building countries’ capacities to strengthen infection, prevention and control, improve multisectoral coordination and optimize the use of antimicrobials to avert infectious disease threats – thus securing health nationally and globally.

One Health Workforce - Next Generation

The One Health Workforce - Next Generation (OHW-NG) project promotes global health security by empowering One Health University Networks in Africa and Southeast Asia to build the human resources and bolster the workforce for more effective disease surveillance and control. OHW-NG works to empower these local university networks to become global leaders in transforming the capacity of workforces to more effectively engage across sectors to prepare current and future health workers to prevent, detect, and respond to emerging disease threats of epidemic and pandemic importance.

Learn more about the Southeast Asia One Health University Network
Learn more about the Africa One Health University Network

Strategies to Prevent Spillover (STOP Spillover)

STOP Spillover was launched in September 2020 and represents a critical next step in the evolution of USAID’s work to understand and address the risks posed by known zoonotic diseases that are spilling over from animals to humans and causing epidemics. STOP Spillover works with local stakeholders in a limited number of targeted countries across Africa and Asia to understand and address threats posed by zoonotic viral diseases that can spillover from animals to humans in an effort to reduce risk of infection, amplification, and spread. It plays a significant role in USAID’s broad Global Health Security program by enhancing our global understanding of the complex drivers of viral spillover and augmenting sustainable national capacities in surveillance, risk analysis, and behavior change.

STOP Spillover works to strengthen national capacities to:

1. Understand the factors that contribute to the risk of spillover of pathogens from wildlife to humans;
2. Develop, assess, and implement early risk-reduction interventions that will reduce the spillover and spread of these threats; and
3. Recognize and respond rapidly to zoonotic spillover events.