ARUSHA, Tanzania — The East African Community (EAC) on Thursday announced the launch of Phase III of its Regional Network of Reference Laboratories for Communicable Diseases, backed by €12 million in funding from the Federal Republic of Germany through KfW, the German Development Bank.
The three-year initiative, scheduled to run from July 2025 to July 2028, is designed to strengthen the region’s capacity to prevent and respond to pandemics and other health emergencies. It follows the One Health approach, which promotes coordination between human, animal, and environmental health sectors.
Speaking during the launch at EAC headquarters in Arusha, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for EAC Affairs and Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers, Beatrice Askul Moe, emphasized the need for cross-border collaboration in responding to emerging health threats.
“For Partner States to work jointly in the prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the containment of pandemics, we need rapid and accurate laboratory detection,” Moe said. “This includes addressing both human and animal health, as well as environmental factors under the One Health approach.”
Phase III of the project will support the operationalization of a Regional Centre of Excellence for Virology at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, strengthen genomic surveillance across national and regional levels, and integrate the Democratic Republic of the Congo into the EAC mobile lab network. The project will also upgrade existing mobile laboratories to support both human and animal health needs and facilitate joint conferences between human and animal health laboratories. In addition, eight mobile laboratory units for animal health will be procured to reinforce pandemic prevention and control across the region.
Since its launch in 2017, the EAC’s laboratory network has supported responses to more than 50 disease outbreaks, including Ebola, Marburg, Rift Valley Fever, Dengue, Measles/Rubella, COVID-19, and enteric pathogens.
Earlier phases of the project laid the groundwork for regional preparedness. Phase I focused on rapid detection of high-risk infectious diseases and deployed nine mobile laboratories. Phase II emphasized antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance, along with the procurement of six additional mobile lab units and 18 genome sequencing machines.
“This partnership has strengthened the region’s disease surveillance infrastructure and capacity for early detection,” Moe said. “It is a critical investment in public health security and regional resilience.”
EAC officials said the funding will enhance regional coordination during outbreaks and help ensure timely, effective public health responses.
