Advancing Global Biosafety and Biosecurity Sapana Vora, PhD Deputy - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Sapana Vora, PhD Deputy Team Chief U.S. Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program (BEP) Advancing Global Biosafety and Biosecurity

Dangerous Diseases are Global

Healthmap.org, Subset of Category A and B Agents 2017

• Train-the-trainer

programs

• One Health efforts
• Targeted biorisk

mitigation investments

• Early detection of

especially dangerous pathogens

• Secure pathogen

collection and diagnostics

• Best practices in

biosafety and biosecurity

• Facility risk

assessments and pathogen surveys

Three Pillars of Biosecurity Engagement Disease Detection and Control Biosafety/ Biosecurity Multisectoral Engagement Sustainable Capacity

BEP Activities

BEP’s Capacity-Building Strategy

• Understand the biosafety/biosecurity landscape

– Identify gaps and opportunities – Visit facilities and meet with partners – Listen to technical experts and leadership

• Collaborate on project development

– Tailored to fit the partners’ needs – Right implementer for the right project – Adaptable and sustainable

• Learn from implementing the project

– What did we accomplish? – How can we improve in the future?

Lessons Learned

• Landscapes evolve, sometimes quickly

– Responding to crisis situations – Travel restrictions or challenges – Personnel turnover at home and abroad

• Priorities shift, and so must we

– One-year projects are often difficult – Threat-driven program

• Projects will fail…and that’s expected

– Know when it is time to let go and move on – Learn from the past to inform the future

STRONG PARTNERSHIPS, STRONG PROGRAM