Development and Introduction of the Namibian National Public Health Emergency Operations Centre Handbook
The national crisis management structures are being strategically developed further, including the drafting of respective policy documents in Namibia.
As part of the German-Namibian Twinning Project TwiNit 2.0, the Robert Koch Institute supports the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services (MoHSS) in the strategic development of the national crisis management structures. This also includes the creation of guideline documents.
In line with international standards, the central coordination and communication functions in the event of a public health emergency are ensured in Namibia by a Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC), which is part of the MoHSS. At the beginning of the cooperation, there was a lack of central strategic and technical guideline documents for the PHEOC. Yet, these documents are required to support the smooth running and maximum effectiveness of the crisis response.
The ‘PHEOC Handbook’ was developed as the central strategy document for implementing a fully functional PHEOC. Building on the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the latest World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, the ‘PHEOC Handbook’ was developed in a series of workshop meetings in Windhoek over several years. The handbook focuses on the strategic structure and central functions of the national PHEOC. It has also been developed to serve as a reference document for establishing PHEOCs at the sub-national level in the future.
The handbook is supplemented by Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), which describe the necessary technical functions of the PHEOC in detail. In March 2025, representatives officially handed over the ‘PHEOC Handbook’ to the Namibian Minister of Health, Dr Kalumbi Shangula, thereby introducing it as a guideline document. In May 2025, around 30 MoHSS employees participated in an initial training session based on the handbook. To continue supporting the MoHSS in preparing for the next emergency in the best possible way, further activities in the area of PHEOCs at both national and subnational levels are planned for 2025 and the third GHPP project phase.
