The Commonwealth Fund for Technical Assistance (CFTC) is the principle means for providing technical assistance to Commonwealth countries and it is administered by the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is a mutual and voluntary fund, and members contribute resources according to ability and draw on them according to their needs.
The Commonwealth Secretariat enabled the placement of a long-term expert Midwifery Training Coordinator at the East, Central and Southern Africa Health Community (ESCA-HC). The project sought to contribute to a reduction in maternal and neo-natal morbidity and mortality through enhancing midwifery capacity in the ECSA region. Click here to read more on the project.
In July 2015 the Commonwealth Secretariat placed a Technical Expert with the Ministry of Health in Sierra Leone. Their initial task is to support the Ministry of Health in strengthening their emergency preparedness and infection disease control systems to enable them to respond quickly to control any re-emerging outbreaks of the Ebola virus, which in 2014 and 2015 resulted in approximately 13,000 infections and 4,000 deaths. The region’s health sector was especially badly affected by the virus, with 240 health worker deaths from Ebola across the affected countries. Further loss through outward migration has induced other heath indicators to decline as a result of the outbreak.
HEU will also be making father efforts to strengthen the region’s national health policies and systems in general to ensure they develop greater resistance against Ebola and other Public Health Challenges, as well as facilitating greater co-ordination between donor responses to support a more sustainable recovery. The Ebola outbreak of 2014 and 2015 has prompted Commonwealth Health Ministers to identify Health Security as a priority focus for the 2016 Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting in May 2016.
Please contact the facilitation team with any requests for expert referrals.