September 26, 2025 (Nairobi, Kenya) The IGAD Health team, from 15th –26 September 2025 engaged stakeholders from Uganda and Kenya at the Busia border point to strengthen health system capacity at the Point of Entry (PoE) and cross-border (CB) area in order to enhance, preparedness, detection, and response to health emergencies.
The engagement organised under the Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPRR) Program for Eastern and Southern Africa (AFE) region also focused at ensuring availability of essential service packages at PoEs and the wider CB areas during the stable and emergency phases.
Stakeholders from key ministries of Health, Agriculture & Environment, Animal health & livestock, Trade & Transport, Immigration, Police, Local Administration and local leaders from Uganda and Kenya were oriented in methodology and tools for Strategic Risk Assessment (SRA) and consequently assessed strategic risks for Busia and the coping capacity for the PoE and created a comprehensive risk profile.
Public Health Emergency Plan (PHEM) for Busia
Using results from the SRA, participants developed a multi-hazards Public Health Emergency Contingency Plan (PHECP) for Busia PoE. The experts and community leaders also participated in joint cross-border meetings to review SRA findings and risk profiles. The meeting was used as a platform to raise advocacy towards the IGAD Cross Boarder policy and the subsequent Data Sharing and Protection protocols.
The engagement concluded with adoption of minutes, including key recommendations to boost cross-border collaboration and health emergency response.
Experts from the Ministry of Health of Tanzania, IOM Kenya, Kenya Red Cross and the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) participated in the meetings.
Health Facility Readiness Assessment
A team of assessors from IGAD, the ministries of health of Kenya and Uganda and the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) assessed two main health facilities on both sides of the border point at Busia. The team assessed the Busia County referral hospital in Kenya and the Busia Health Center-IV in Uganda to evaluate their readiness to provide the essential health services to the CB communities and migrants.
Cross Border Interventions
One of the sub-components of the HEPRRP, coordinated by IGAD, focuses on cross-border health interventions aimed at enhancing cross-border health collaboration and ensuring the continuity of essential health services during health emergencies and in post-emergency phases.
At key cross-border priority sites, IGAD is advancing joint engagements to improve coordination in hazard detection and risk assessment, supporting the formulation of multi-hazard contingency plans for designated Points of Entry (PoEs).
Looking ahead, IGAD plans to use these platforms to conduct International Health Regulation (IHR) core capacity assessments to evaluate and enhance cross-border health system preparedness for effective prevention, detection, and response to health emergencies.
