NTI receives grant to create Global Health Security Index

Several organizations, including the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) biosecurity program, received a grant last week to create a Global Health Security (GHS) Index.

The GHS Index will assess countries’ capabilities to prevent, detect, and respond to high consequence biological events. This index will rely on publicly available data and be measured by an independent entity. The first GHS Index is expected to be released in 2019.

The index will be launched by NTI in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and the Economist Intelligence Unit. A team of international experts from 12 countries helped build the framework through which countries will be assessed. The framework includes indicators that look at political and socio-economic risk factors, a country’s healthcare system, and the country’s capability to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats.

The GHS Index will create accountability for health security investments, recognize countries that have taken concrete actions to improve capacity, and serve as a tool for governments, banks, and donors to prioritize financing to fill gaps.

It is funded by a grant of $3.56 million from the Open Philanthropy Project. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also provided a $250,000 grant toward this effort.

“We deeply appreciate the continuing, generous support from the Open Philanthropy Project to launch a Global Health Security Index comprised of publicly available data for countries around the world,” NTI Co-Chair and CEO Ernest Moniz said. “This independent assessment will help keep biological threats at the top of the international security agenda and further prioritize investments to reduce global catastrophic biological risks.”

NTI Co-Chair Sam Nunn added that the index would increase awareness and create public accountability for improving health security.

The GHS Index effort is led by Dr. Elizabeth Cameron, NTI’s vice president for global biological policy and programs; Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security; and Leo Abruzzese, senior global director of public policy at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“An unending string of high-consequence disease outbreaks—from Ebola and Nipah to Zika and MERS—have highlighted the critical need for tools to bolster countries’ efforts to build their health security capacities,” Nuzzo said. “Among its myriad benefits, the Index will bring focus to the important link between strong, robust health systems and public health priorities for epidemic preparedness—a connection vital to overall community resilience in disasters.”