Joining forces to prepare for another global pandemic
The Office for National Statistics has joined forces with statistical organisations across three different continents to make sure the world gets the insight it needs should there be another pandemic.
The Pandemic Preparedness Toolkit (PPT) is a five-year project, funded by Wellcome, which aims to co-create an accessible, sustainable resource that will build capacity for health surveillance and leadership in data and statistics, in the event of future pandemics.
Putting in place provisions for monitoring a future pandemic is an important part of developing statistical capability and therefore being able to provide quality statistics to inform evidence-based policies.
The ONS can now reveal it will be working closely with Argentina, Malawi, and Nepal on this new, global project.
Emma Rourke, Deputy National Statistician at the ONS said: “I’m excited to be working closely with Argentina, Malawi, and Nepal to build capability in tracking endemic conditions, novel emerging pathogens and escalating infectious diseases.
“In supporting international management of infectious diseases, we contribute to the protection of our own citizens. Globally, none of us wants to be unprepared in our response if another pandemic hits.”
Last week, the ONS met delegates from the Argentina, Malawi and Nepal National Statistics Offices (NSOs) at the United Nations Statistical Commission in New York.
The PPT project Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with the Malawi NSO, with virtual MoU signings planned for the Argentina and Nepal NSOs in the coming weeks.
Once live, the PPT will be a collection of resources providing practical guidance, statistical methods, knowledge products, case studies, and training materials. This project will be the first of its kind to provide a resource specifically designed for NSOs to conduct trusted infectious disease surveillance and work effectively with public health offices to implement evidence-based policies.
Tariq Khokhar, Head of Data for Science and Health at Wellcome, said: “New methods, tools and ways of working were rapidly developed in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This project is an opportunity to build on the statistical tools that support evidence-based decision making so we’re better prepared to monitor future diseases and pandemics to ensure an equitable and effective global response.
“It’s brilliant to have Argentina, Malawi, and Nepal on board as this will allow us to understand the needs and available resources within different settings and develop useable tools that will benefit communities across the world.”
Shelton Kanyanda, Director of Agriculture and Economic Statistics, NSO of Malawi, said: “The National Statistical Office of Malawi is in the process of modernising its operations. Our collaboration with the Office for National Statistics to develop a Pandemic Preparedness Toolkit is timely, not only for our drive to modernise our operations, but also to respond to the many climatic and pandemic shocks affecting our country and the region more broadly.”
The Nepali delegate, led by Chief Statistician Mr Toyam Raya, said: “NSO Nepal is producing the demographic, social and economic data for the benefit of its users (all three tiers of government, academia, researchers, private sector among a few of them) via traditional surveys and censuses. Once this PPT tool is developed and comes into operation, we will be able to provide high quality data mainly on social statistics, even during pandemic and disasters, to our users.”
Mariano Poledo, of the International Relations Team at the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses, Argentina, said: “For INDEC it is a great opportunity to cooperate with different NSOs around the world, and to work closely with them in order to adopt and adapt the best statistical methodologies.
“It will give INDEC the possibility to work with a project that has a global scope and a positive outcome, not only for our country or region, but for the whole international statistical community.”
Statistics for the Public Good
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