Surveillance and Evaluation of Global Health Emergencies - Lessons from the Social Sciences Perspective

This book is a chronological story of global health emergencies (COVID-19, Ebola, HIV) lived by the author drawing from a series of publications over more than twenty years of public and global health in the world. The compilation shows how the lens of social sciences plays a stronger role in the responses to epidemics and pandemics. Recently, in Switzerland two publications related to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate how attention was needed for its aged population, a more vulnerable group in the society, and how public health was challenged during the fifth wave during a national referendum. In France, with an external independent review mandated by the Government we used the social sciences lens to see how an early evaluation was challenged in relation to the design, implementation and evaluation of the measures carried out in the country. In Africa, the lessons learnt of setting up M&E systems for a pandemic are analyzed in two articles. During the Ebola outbreak, the response to the epidemic in W. Africa underlined the lessons on how to improve the quality of health systems. Finally, the book presents different perspectives of the response to the HIV epidemics. One publication described the use of HIV behavioral surveillance data to advance national responses worldwide. The research thesis presented with a case study in a district of Burkina Faso, how measuring local responses can improve local and national strategic plans. A review of policy and practice for HIV Prevention in Europe described the challenges encountered in the late nineties.