Malawi has launched its second AVoHC–SURGE training cohort in Lilongwe to strengthen national capacity for responding to public health emergencies, with support from the Pandemic Fund, the World Bank’s HEPRR initiative, and the World Health Organization. The programme aims to build a skilled, coordinated, and rapidly deployable workforce capable of responding to increasingly complex health and climate-related crises.
The new cohort brings together 104 responders from multiple sectors, including the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, the Malawi Defence Force, and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. Over a 27-day training period, participants will be equipped in areas such as humanitarian and health cluster coordination, rapid response teams, public health emergency operations centres, gender-based violence prevention and response to sexual exploitation and harassment, and emergency communication.
Opening the training, the Secretary for Health Administration emphasized that Malawi is facing a growing burden of overlapping health threats, including cholera, mpox, measles, polio, and climate-driven disasters such as floods and cyclones. He stressed that health emergencies increasingly cut across sectors and require coordinated, fast, and integrated responses under a One Health approach that links human, animal, and environmental health systems.
The World Health Organization highlighted that the SURGE approach is designed not only for crisis response but also for preparedness before emergencies occur. It underscored the importance of embedding AVoHC–SURGE training into pre-service education and strengthening connections with emergency medical teams to ensure a full continuum of response, from early detection and coordination to clinical care. Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic further reinforced the need for stronger national systems to ensure effective and timely responses.
The initiative is contributing to the development of a professional, ethical, and deployable emergency health workforce while improving coordination across institutions and strengthening Malawi’s alignment with global health security standards. It also enhances the country’s role in regional emergency response efforts.
This second cohort moves Malawi closer to its target of training 200 responders under the programme. As the 16th country in the WHO African Region to implement AVoHC–SURGE, Malawi has already demonstrated strong national ownership, having trained 70 responders in its first cohort drawn from government ministries, UN agencies, and partner institutions under a multisectoral One Health framework.
