IDSR Implementation Assessment - 2025 Report

The Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy, initially developed by the World Health Organization's (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) in 1998, was designed to enhance early detection and response to public health emergencies, including infectious disease outbreaks across the African region. This assessment report, released in July 2026, aimed to evaluate the progress made in the implementation of the IDSR Regional Strategy for the period 2020-2030, as well as the performance of key functions within the Member States' IDSR systems.

The study employed a cross-sectional retrospective approach, collecting data through a structured online questionnaire. This questionnaire, developed in English and French using the KOBO-collect application, was distributed to all 47 IDSR Focal Points in the WHO AFRO country offices. Each focal point was tasked with involving their respective heads of disease surveillance units from the ministries of health to complete the questionnaire.

The data gathered was subsequently reviewed and validated by the Member States themselves. For the analysis, Excel and R software tools were utilized to clean and process the collected data. Upon completion of this process, the IDSR Implementation Assessment 2025 Report was compiled, providing an overview of the current state of IDSR implementation and performance across the African continent.

This assessment is critical as it not only reflects the achievements and challenges faced by the IDSR systems in the 47 Member States over the past two decades but also serves as a benchmark for future improvements and investments in public health surveillance and response mechanisms.