The Covid-19 Pandemic raised debate about the need to reform the system of global health financing and public goods for health. Financing initiatives, previously controlled by a small group of donor countries and private foundations, uncovered shortcomings such as lack of sustainable and comprehensive approaches in pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (pandemic PPR).
Since the pandemic new global and regional funding arrangements have been established to address the shortcomings of the past global health initiatives. These include the Pandemic Fund that is hosted by the World Bank, and Africa-led initiatives that align with the Africa CDC´s New Public Health Order for Africa including the Africa Epidemics Fund and Africa Public Health Foundation.
“The new pandemic funding initiatives are important institutions for pandemic PPR, with progressive aims such as the focus on country needs, promotion of ethical governance and decision making, and position themselves as able to catalyse co-financing by countries and private-sector investments,” Muinde explains.
It is these new initiatives and their progressive aims that Muinde and her team will assess through the project “Pandemic Funds, Public Goods for Health, and the Future of Global Health Financing” (PANDFUND).
Global Health Threats
With the increasing global threats from disease outbreaks and the fact that the covid-19 pandemic and other recent outbreaks such as Ebola have laid bare the need for stronger and fair governance systems, sustainable financing for pandemic PPR, and robust public health systems globally, regionally, and nationally, PANDFUND is a timely project.
“We will investigate governance arrangements and policy priorities for the new initiatives; map and evaluate how they operate; exploring both regional and national experiences with Kenya and Ethiopia as case studies; and disseminate findings about the new initiatives. Investigating and sharing findings about their impact is important for future global health financing and pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response arrangements,” Muinde explains and adds:
“We will also use this project to build equitable research partnerships between institutions in Norway, Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as strengthen Norwegian-Indian research cooperation.”
Building the Project Team
Kick-off for the project, with partners in Norway, Kenya, Ethiopia, and India, is planned for November/December 2025. The focus now is the formal processes with all partners before the official project start on 01 April 2025. The project will also recruit 2 PhD researchers, postdoctoral fellows and research assistants.
The project is interdisciplinary with expertise in medical and social anthropology, health economics, epidemiology, health policy, public health, political geography and demography.
“This project is multi-domain where every domain is speaking to each other. It is fantastic to work with such a supportive and exemplary team of colleagues,” Muinde says.
Among the partners are the co-project lead Professor Stephen Munga of the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Professor Katerini Storeng at UiO´s Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM), Professor Simon Reid-Henry at Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Associate Professor Melon Zeleke and Professor Nigatu Regassa Geda of the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Professor Indranil Mukhopadhyay of Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, India.
Before her current position as Associate Professor in Medical Anthropology, Muinde has previously been involved with Professor Ruth Prince’s projects “Epidemics and African Health Systems” (funded by the Research Council of Norway) and “Universal Health Coverage and the Public Good in Africa” (Funded by the European Research Council). She is also the UiO co-partner (together with Katerini Storeng) of the Africa-Europe Clusters of Research Excellence (CoRE) on Preparedness and Response to Pandemics and Shocks. The Pandemic Funds project will be Muinde’s first big project lead.
“It is really fantastic and feels great to be able to take on this big challenge, and I fell blessed to work with such a great team and to work on issues close to my heart. I am very grateful to the Research Council of Norway for funding the project, and for the incredible support by Helsam,” Muinde says.
The project will run for three years until 2028.