Will Namibia Be Ready When the Next Pandemic Hits?

While much of the world is engulfed in geopolitical conflict, Namibia faces a quieter – yet urgent – reckoning.

Cholera has re-emerged, malaria remains endemic, increasing fatalities, new HIV infections are increasing and coordination between routine services and emergency responses vie for the same overstretched pool of resources. 

Namibia’s inability to bridge public health emergency response with routine service delivery reflects a deeper institutional void: The absence of a strong, centralised public health authority.

Namibia’s health policy record reads like a model student’s transcript – ratification of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005), participation in World Health Oragnisation’s emergency preparedness framework, membership in the Pandemic Fund, and most recently, the adoption of a One Health Strategy (2024-2028).

Yet, this checklist compliance risks masking a dangerous inertia.

Against this backdrop, it is time to operationalise what has already been agreed on in principle: A Cabinet decision mandating establishing the Namibia Institute of Public Health (NIPH).

A VISION DEFERRED

The idea of a public health institute in Namibia is not new.

As early as 2013, the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention was in discussion with the Ministry of Health and Social Services to establish a national body responsible for public health surveillance and response.

Since then, epidemic after epidemic – from hepatitis E to Covid-19 and now cholera – has highlighted the urgency of such an institution. 

The challenge is not technical capacity, but a lack of political momentum and institutional coordination.

Namibia has already invested in pieces of what would constitute a functional public health institute: A Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme, an Emergency Operations Centre, outbreak response protocols, and skilled personnel.

However, these are scattered and under-leveraged in the absence of an overarching institutional home with legal standing, operational independence, and a clear national mandate.

Support from the Robert Koch Institute, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and other development partners has strengthened the country’s capabilities – from piloting event-based surveillance to expanding genomic sequencing capacity. But the NIPH remains institutionally anchorless. 

OUTBREAKS

The current cholera outbreak is a case in point.

In the absence of a central coordinating body, response efforts will suffer from delays in case confirmation, weak risk communication and fragmented deployment of personnel.

This crisis unfolds alongside another persistent threat – malaria.

Malaria outbreaks continue to overwhelm local facilities, strain diagnostic capacity, and expose critical gaps in real-time data sharing and surge response.

These converging epidemics represent a double calamity compounding risk at both population and patient levels.

In many cases, individuals may suffer from both diseases simultaneously. This scenario magnifies the urgent need for a centralised institution capable of coordinating multi-threat responses.

NIPH would not simply respond to these issues – it would pre-empt them.

As an autonomous or semi-autonomous body, it would consolidate disease surveillance, laboratory coordination, emergency preparedness and analytics under one roof.

It would provide the institutional home required to fulfil Namibia’s IHR 2005 obligations serving as the engine room for National Health Security as laid out in the National Action Plan for Health Security.

Without NIPH, these frameworks remain theoretical – policy without infrastructure, vision without execution.

RESEARCH

Beyond emergency responses, NIPH could also transform the country’s public health research landscape.

Most health research in Namibia is externally funded, thematically scattered, and often disconnected from implementation.

With NIPH, there is an opportunity to institutionalise a learning health system – one that continuously generates, tests, and applies evidence to improve programmes, policies and outcomes.

It would also operationalise key elements of the One Health Strategy (2024-2028), which emphasises coordinated responses to zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and environmental health threats.

Implementing that strategy demands not only cross-sectoral collaboration but data integration – and NIPH is the logical institutional home for that work.

By anchoring partnerships with universities, think tanks and regional bodies, NIPH would strengthen Namibia’s research footprint.

It would create structured pathways for public health practitioners and postgraduate students to conduct operational research relevant to national priorities.

Importantly, it would ensure that research is not an academic afterthought but a core function of national health governance.

CLOSING THE GAP

Namibia’s elevation in global health diplomacy – symbolised by health minister Esperance Luvindao’s chairmanship of Committee A of the 78th World Health Assembly – is a diplomatic achievement. But it must be matched by preparedness.

Committee A is responsible for shaping global pandemic preparedness and response.

If we wish to lead in shaping global health policy, we must ensure that our systems can stand up to the scrutiny we expect of others.

Establishing the NIPH is not a technical recommendation. It is a political imperative – the linchpin that connects Namibia’s international commitments to its domestic reality.

It would strengthen pandemic readiness, build long-overdue institutional memory, and place Namibia’s public health system on a path to long-term resilience.

– Matuikuani Dax is a global health specialist with a robust background in clinical medicine, health systems strengthening, and programme management. She is committed to addressing health inequalities and improving global health outcomes.

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