Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced a new five year grant of up to $250 million, subject to Congressional appropriations, to continue the U.S. government’s long-standing collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Through this grant, USAID and FAO will continue to collaborate with partner countries to strengthen critical capacities that prevent, detect, and respond to emerging infectious disease outbreaks around the world.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as recent Ebola and Monkeypox outbreaks, are the latest reminders of the effect that global health security threats, like a known or emerging pathogen from animals, can have on people’s health and on global economies and societies. The risk and potential impact of pathogen spillover from animals to humans is increasing, and global systems remain ill-equipped to identify and contain outbreaks.
USAID’s collaboration with FAO’s Emergency Centre for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) strengthens animal health systems across Africa, Asia, Europe/Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East, and helps identify and respond to emerging infectious diseases of animal origin at source. These efforts will improve livelihoods, food security, and health around the world.
USAID and FAO are building on more than 15 years of collaborative work with country governments, the private sector, and regional partners to build a sustainable and robust system of preparedness and response to an array of human and animal health threats, reducing vulnerabilities to future epidemics and pandemics. This partnership has trained thousands of animal health workers; established critical farm safety practices; improved animal health in partner countries; responded to more than a thousand infectious disease outbreaks; and strengthened hundreds of laboratories – critical for disease detection and surveillance.
USAID is significantly expanding its investments in global health security to reach 50 countries, a doubling of present efforts. This new award will play an important role in USAID’s expansion, and reflects the United States’ commitment to working with partners around the globe to build better global preparedness for present and future health threats.