Project news 1 : Dispatch Consultation mission team 1

The project for Strengthening Capacity for Early Warning and Response to Infection diseases (EWARS Project) started in June 2021, but due to the COVID-19, experts could not be dispatched for a long period of time. Therefore, in June 2022, JICA HQ dispatched a Consultation mission team to confirm the project's status in the field and plan future activities. Most importantly, some of the Project Design Matrix (PDM) indicators as a framework of the project were to be determined after the project started, so discussions were needed to clarify these indicators.

Dr. Osuke Komazawa, Senior Director, Human Development Division, JICA HQ, and Dr. Shingo Nishiki, Research Scientist, Center for Field Epidemic Intelligence, Research and Professional Development (CFEIR), National Institute of Infection Diseases (NIID), stayed in Indonesia from June 17 to July 1 as a member of the mission team.

During their stay in Indonesia, the mission team held meetings with WHO, CDC, AIHSP, and USAID, which are other donors supporting infectious disease surveillance, to exchange information on the current status of their support. They also went to South Sulawesi, one of the potential target provinces for the project, and visited the South Sulawesi Provincial Health Office, the Maros District Health Office, the Community Health Center (Puskesmas), Health Laboratory Center for Makassar (BBLK) and Center for Health and Environmental Engineering and disease control Makassar (BTKLPP).

We investigated how each organization is involved in the surveillance of infectious diseases and what kind of work they actually do.

Subsequently, in light of the information obtained from these visits and the results of the baseline survey conducted by the project, Mission team organized an overview of the surveillance of infectious diseases in Japan and Indonesia, held a seminar, and reported the results to the Indonesian Ministry of Health.

We also discussed the contents of the PDM with the Surveillance Working Team, Directorate of the Surveillance and Health Quarantine (SKK), Directorate of General for the Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health in order to revise the PDM. The project goal was revised to " Infectious disease surveillance is strengthened in the pilot provinces. " And one of the indicators was revised to " More than 80% of early warning alerts are responded according to the Guidelines for Early Warning and Response System by the end of the project from all districts of the pilot provinces..."

The proposed amendments to the PDM were agreed upon between the JICA Mission Team and the SKK of the Indonesian Ministry of Health. The results of the mission team's activities were reported to the JICA Indonesia Office and the Embassy of Japan in Indonesia prior to their return to Japan.