About LGHS

Strengthening local partners to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats

LGHS (Local Global Health Security) is committed to protecting communities from the rapid spread of infectious diseases. As a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded initiative, LGHS strengthens global health security by empowering local organizations to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats, ensuring resilient health systems.

Operating across Africa, Europe Eurasia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, LGHS collaborates with local health actors to build their capacity and foster community trust. This approach ensures the sustainability and effectiveness of health interventions.

LGHS also supports the U.S. Government’s commitment to enhancing country capacity under the Global Health Security (GHS) Agenda 2028 (GHSA), aligning efforts with the International Health Regulations (IHR) as part of the GHSA.

The LGHS project team visited a local radio station in Bafoussam, Cameroon to learn how health information is communicated in their broadcasts. Photo by Christian Elongue, Panagora Group

Contribution to Global Health Security Goals

LGHS is dedicated to advancing GHS by partnering with local organizations to address health security gaps identified in national assessments, enhancing countries’ capacities to meet International Health Regulations (2005). By aligning with key GHS technical areas, LGHS contributes directly to Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) 2028 goals. Utilizing Joint External Evaluation (JEE) 3.0 reports, World Health Organization (WHO) Benchmarks, and National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS), LGHS ensures that activities are linked to national priorities. Although individual organizations may not directly impact JEE scores, their collective contributions move countries closer to achieving relevant capacities, serving as scalable models for local engagement. LGHS also develops a Framework for JEE Translation, helping organizations assess their involvement in subnational GHS systems and measure their performance throughout the project. Through its three objectives, the project complements the multisectoral and cross-technical approaches of other GHS programs by collaborating with local actors to address critical health security gaps.

GHSA Agenda 2024 JEE 3.0 WHO Benchmarks

Objective 1

Address critical gaps in health security through grants and technical assistance in prioritized technical areas.
Objective 2

Strengthen the administrative and financial organizational capacity of local entities to effectively manage the implementation of health security technical interventions.
Objective 3

Expand the global knowledge base of approaches and best practices for local entities conducting global health security interventions.

LGHS Technical Focus Areas

LGHS’s technical focus areas reflect the JEE technical areas that USAID has prioritized, based on their alignment with the Agency’s strategic and comparative areas of expertise, with engagement across the human, animal and environmental health sectors. LGHS is designed to be flexible and build on country-specific GHS priorities, as prioritized in countries’ NAPHS and the State Parties Self-Assessment Annual Report (SPAR) and selected in consultation with USAID Missions.

The project targets the elements of these prioritized technical focus areas that are most relevant at the sub-national level and well-suited for implementation by local organizations, and then aligns them with the local organizational landscape in each country.

The LGHS technical focus areas and associated approaches are the following:

Risk communication, social behavior change, and community engagement (RCCE)

LGHS contributes to countries’ multilevel, multisectoral, and multifaceted RCCE capacity to address public health emergencies at the subnational level. We engage local organizations and build their capacity to design, implement, monitor and continuously improve a combination of communication and engagement strategies that effectively reach the community through radio and print media, social media, interpersonal engagements, public awareness campaigns, health promotion, social mobilization, stakeholder engagement and infodemic management.

Diagnostic and laboratory systems support

LGHS partners with local entities within the national laboratory network, who can deliver diagnostic support to local communities. We engage organizations primarily in the animal health sector to strengthen their abilities to safely and securely perform sample collection and implement laboratory quality, standard services capable of detecting zoonotic pathogens of importance both to small scale farmers and local health providers. LGHS’s support encompasses those pathogens that are identified in the national list of prioritized zoonotic diseases.

Zoonotic disease, including community-based surveillance

GHS works with local organizations that can contribute to functional multisectoral, multidisciplinary mechanisms, systems and practices to minimize the transmission of zoonotic diseases from animals to human populations at the subnational level. We enlist organizations across the animal, human, and environmental health sectors, improve their capacity based on international standards, guidance and best practices, and assist them in strengthening coordination, collaboration, information sharing, and communication between relevant sectors as part of a One Health approach to minimize transmission of zoonotic diseases to human populations.

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC)

LGHS supports local partners to implement effective IPC programs at the subnational level that facilitate essential service delivery at facilities to help prevent and control health care acquired infections (HCAIs) and reduce the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We help organizations to meet the requirements in the WHO IPC core components recommendations, including monitoring and reporting of HCAIs, and implement standards for safe built environment in health facilities.

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

LGHS contributes to countries’ national response to combat AMR using a One Health approach by engaging local organizations to strengthen appropriate use of antimicrobials in human medicine, veterinary medicine and food production; the generation, collation and reporting of data for AMR surveillance; and multisectoral coordination across human, animal, food, plant and environmental sectors at the subnational level. LGHS prioritizes and supports these interventions in line with countries’ national action plans on AMR.

Outbreak preparedness and response

LGHS works with local organizations to contribute to a country’s emergency preparedness capacity by supporting them to build, sustain and improve operational capabilities at the community level based on strategic risk assessments and planning, allocation of resources, training, simulating, and organizing for community level response at the subnational level.

Where We Work

LGHS works in up to 15 countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Currently, LGHS operates in Jamaica, Moldova, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia.