The Kenya National Public Health Institute [KNPHI] held a meeting with International Organization for Migration [IOM] In a significant step aimed at fostering Global Health Security Agenda [GHSA] to better prevent, detect and respond to complex communicable disease outbreaks and health threats.

The KNPHI acting Director General Dr Kamene Kimenye acknowledged IOM's technical and operational contributions in supporting Kenya's border health initiatives, migration health programming, and response cordination during public health emergencies. 

She emphasized need for collaboration in areas such as national migration health policy and strategic framework, climate change mitigation,population mobility mapping.Others are capacity building for frontline health officers and surveillance teams working at points of entry and cross-border regions as well as integration of IOM's data systems and tools within KNPHI's national surveillance and emergency operations platforms.

Dr Poonam Dhavan, IOM Director for Migration said the partnership will focus on strengthening surveillance, bilateral and regional coordination to implement the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), as well as Point-Of-Entry (POE) capacity building to bring sea, air, and land entry points into compliance with IHR standards.

She reiterated IOM’s approach to public health emergencies and outbreak preparedness and response efforts  anchored in its Health, Border and Mobility Management Framework, which sets out the Organization’s strategic role and expected outcomes in preventing, detecting and responding to communicable diseases amid widespread human mobility.

Division of Port and Migration Health Services under KNPHI plays a key mandate of conducting screenings, vaccinations, and disease surveillance at airports, ports, and land borders, while migration health initiatives, led by organizations like IOM, provide pre-migration health assessments, travel health assistance, and support during migration. 

IOM is a key player in responding to humanitarian and public health emergencies, and supporting health system recovery and resilience. Health programming in emergencies is an essential part of IOM’s humanitarian mandate and included as one of the 15 sectors of assistance in its Migration Crisis Operational Framework.