Epidemics

This evaluation examines the OCA’s response to the severe threat posed by Covid-19 to people everywhere, including in OCA’s offices; a threat that simultaneously jeopardised existing programming, carried the potential of a worldwide medical crisis, and disrupted core OCA habits in terms of travel, supply, transport, staffing, and security.

At the request of the authorities and the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital of
Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA), a team from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) - Operational Centre Brussels
(OCB) supported AE-FUTHA’s response to the outbreak in Ebonyi State. This emergency intervention
led to an interest in having a longer-term project to continue to support the Lassa fever response and
build institutional capacity for this neglected disease. As a result, a four-year project in Abakaliki
started end of 2018 and was later extended until 2025.

In order to improve the relevance, effectiveness and quality of its interventions, MSF, decided to conduct an
evaluation of the Abakaliki project from its onset until the end of 2022.

After a mild first Covid-19 wave, Malawi experienced a short but brutal second wave between mid-December 2020 and February 2021, which put a high strain on the Malawian health system, especially in Blantyre district.

Evaluation of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (DRTB) Intervention, in Baghdad, Iraq

MSF in Latin America has a history of more than 40 years of implementing a wide range of programs, including neglected diseases (HIV, Tuberculosis and Chagas), urban violence as well as regular emergency responses to acute epidemic and natural disasters.

The objective of this exercise is to reflect on the recent OCBA Ebola intervention in Province Equateur, DRC, in order to understand the actual in-house capacities in this field. This reflection exercise aims further to serve as the trigger for a broader exercise where, once the main findings and
conclusions are shared and acknowledged by key OCBA stakeholders with regard to VHF response, OCBA ambitions on the domain of Ebola response will be discussed again. Finally, the outcome of that broader exercise could be, considering the result of this capitalization as the baseline situation, the design and implementation of an action plan that should contribute to fulfil those ambitions. This capitalization exercise intended to explore strengths and weaknesses of OCBA’s response; what seems to have worked well and what didn’t regarding the resources deployed; how adequate were the strategies defined and their implementation for the different pillars and aspects of the response.

MSF-OCG has been present in Magaria, Niger since 2005. MSF is confronted with yearly peaks of severe acute malnutrition and malaria, which mainly affect children under five-years-old. Despite MSF’s presence mortality rates during these months often rise above MSF standards, while periodically, mortality rates in the community rise above emergency thresholds. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, we found the project to be relevant for MSF, but some changes could be made to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness. This includes establishing a long-term strategy, the simplification of protocols, exploring innovative ways to treat malnutrition
and malaria, and perhaps using this as an opportunity to revitalise the general interest in malnutrition

The MSF-OCB Mumbai Project aims to improve outcomes of patients with DRTB within targeted areas/facilities within Mumbai, India. The objectives of the evaluation was to systematically describe the DR-TB project approach (the strategy, the model, and activities) and catalytic dimension and the expected outcomes and to evaluate results achieved in terms of policy changes and identify potential lessons learnt.

The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an independent assessment of an international sample (n=10) of MSF’s Covid-19 DHP campaigns.

The purpose is to help generate evidence-based proposals for improved scenarios and examples of ‘good practice’ for future Ebola outbreaks. More generally, these findings will contribute to ongoing discussions around the roles and work of the organization within a changing global landscape.