Pathogen Genomic Surveillance Strategy for Zambia (2025-2029)

This strategy sets out a single national, One Health approach to bringing pathogen genomics into Zambia’s surveillance system, from sampling through to data use. It is aligned with the WHO and Africa CDC genomic surveillance frameworks. The Zambia Genomic Surveillance Consortium (ZGSC) governs it, and its goal is a comprehensive genomic surveillance system for public health response and health security by 2029. It is built around five strategic objectives:

1. Sequencing capacity and equitable access: upgrade labs and equipment, give each lab a geographic service zone, and push for domestic funding.
2. Workforce development and retention: training in sequencing and bioinformatics, quality assessment, and retention schemes.
3. Data governance: common data standards, a central data system, and data-sharing agreements under Zambia’s Data Protection Act.
4. Partnerships and systems: sample referral across human, animal and environmental sectors, wider networks, and the 7-1-7 framework.
5. Emergency management: an emergency task force, rapid resource mobilisation, local production of reagents and consumables, and reviews during and after responses.