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About LGHS

Working across seven countries, we are tackling global health security challenges by empowering local partners to address 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.

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.

  1. Objective 1

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

  2. Objective 2

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

  3. 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:

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.