National and regional work experience and skills

(2021-2023)

·       High-level profile engagement and advocacy for establishing an information-sharing platform to support One Health surveillance, reporting and joint response to epidemic-prone diseases

·       Designing and developing a digital platform to support coordination of One Health activities in Tanzania

·       Designing training program and undertaking capacity building of the frontline workforce involved in detection and response to disasters including emerging and re-emerging diseases

·       Overall management and coordination the project (human and financial resources), oversee development of workplans, progress reports

Key achievements

·       First successful attempt to establish a digital platform for sharing information between ministries responsible for human health (Ministry of Health), domestic and wild animals (Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries), Environment (Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Vice President’s Office) and Food security (Ministry of Agriculture) in Tanzania.

(2020-2022)

·       Leading ICT and epidemiology team to design, develop and deploy technology-assisted digital platform (AfyaMsafiri) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health at points of entries during pandemics

·       Multi-country project team coordination

·       High level engagement with government and donors/ International partners (US CDC, WHO) and advocacy to promote technology-assisted surveillance during infectious disease epidemics e.g., deployment of AfyaData to support COVID-19 surveillance in Mozambique

·       Public health system strengthening through adoption of fit-for purpose technologies at community level

Key achievements/success story

·       The AfyaMsafiri platform significantly reduced the turnaround time for passenger port health clearance at major airports (Julius Nyerere and Kilimanjaro international airports) from 2 hours to 45 minutes

·       Introduction of technology-enhanced COVID-19 community-based surveillance in Mozambique significantly contributed to early detection and response to the pandemic

·       Gap analysis of the Event-based Surveillance (EBS) systems in Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi

·       Identification of best practices to enhance One Health approaches at cross-border sites

Key achievements

·       Findings were utilized in the revision of the EBS guidelines in the respective countries that have enabled thorough captured and transmission of event information to central level (Epidemiology section) and cross-border sharing of epidemic-prone disease information

SACIDS ICT tool (AfyaData) development for enhancing community-based disease outbreak detection and response in East and Southern Africa-Phase 1.0.

(August 2015 to December 2016)

·       Leading ICT and epidemiology team to design, develop and deploy mobile technology app (AfyaData) to enhance disease surveillance in human and animal populations

·       Advocacy for adoption and scaling-up application of AfyaData by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries in Tanzania

Key achievements:

·       The AfyaData app which has been adopted in 8 districts of Tanzania to support community-based disease surveillance

·       Time to detection of disease events at community level has been reduced from 10 days (before adoption) to 2 days (after adoption)

·       The ‘AfyaData’ team was recognized and awarded Prize by the Fondation Pierre Fabre (https://www.sua.ac.tz/news/afyadata-wins-global-south-e-health-observatory-award).

·       The AfyaData app story was also documented and promoted by the Bill Gates “Heroes in the Field” project which has attracted interest of more than 2.5 million views and 1.4K likes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtiwCefU-VI)

·       High-profile engagement at national and regional levels to promote cross-border disease surveillance

·       Promoting best practices on cross-border information sharing to fight trans-boundary human and animal diseases

Key achievement:

·       Enhanced joint planning and harmonization of Trans-boundary animal- and zoonotic diseases by the Ngorongoro district (Tanzania) and Narok county (Kenya) veterinary authorities e.g., vaccination programmes for anthrax, peste des petits ruminants (PPR), Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), etc.

·       Enabled the two neighboring local authorities to communicate in case of outbreak of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases in the cross-border ecosystem

(2009- 2012)

·       Overall Project management and monitoring

·       Coordination of sub-national human and animal health technical team involved in disease surveillance

·       Gap analysis and identification of appropriate mobile technologies to enhance disease surveillance

·       Promoting cross-border cooperation to detect, report and respond to disease epidemics

Achievements

·       Initial findings contributed to defining the SACIDS focus and investment in fit-for-purpose approaches to fight disease epidemics at source geographically and zoologically

(2008-2010)

·       Project and activity management

·       Engagement skills for high level policy makers in Tanzania (Ministry of Health & Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries)

·       Country review on public and animal health surveillance systems

·       Monitoring and reporting project progress to the funder

Achievements:

·       A seminal publication on policy framework for One Health research on zoonoses in the Lancet Infectious Disease Journal (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(10)70312-1/fulltext) stimulated the systems thinking of the One Health approach based on collaborative efforts between natural and social sciences. This article has been cited widely by different scholars and partitioners.