CORDS Inaugural Conference, 21-24 April 2013, Annecy, France

 

On 21-24 April 2013 the global network "Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance", thereafter called CORDS, had its Inaugural Conference at the Foundation Merioux Conference Centre in Annecy, France.

 

CORDS and its Conference was supported by its funding partners Bill&Melinda Gates foundation, Skoll global threats Fund and the Rockfeller Foundation.

 

Through plenaries and top-table exercises and intensive discussions the Conference achieved its objectives:

1. to build up relationships and engagement
2. to enhance understanding and expectations of the role of CORDS and how it will operate
3. to begin to develop integrated global and local action plans in the areas of:

• One Health and in-network training
• Communication and Knowledge Management
• Innovative operational research

 

 

  

 

 

  More about CORDS: 

Countries worldwide have committed to improving their ability to detrect, identify and respond to biological threats.

 

Connecting Organizations for Regional Diseases Surveillance (CORDS) is a unique, international non-governmental organization buiulding information exchange among surveillance networks in different areas of the world.

 

CORDS has six founding disease surveillance network members, with plan to expand over time. They are: 

• South-eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN)

• Middle East Consortium of INfectious Disease Survellance (MECIDS)
• Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance (MBDS)
• Southern African Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS)
• East African Integrated Disease Surveillance Network (EAIDS)
• Asia Partnership on Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (APEIR)

 The World Health Organization (WHO), the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) all welcome the creation of CORDS.

CORDS complements existing national health systems. It undertakes activities in support to four primary objectives, which all governments seek for their health systems:

• Improving Capacity
• Advancing One Health
• Promoting Innovation
• Building Sustainable Networks

The concept, principles, goal, objectives and activities of CORDS are fully in line with the European Health Policy Health 2020 and the European Action PLan for Strengthening Public Health Capacities and Services.

SEE Health Network and CORDS:

The SEE Health Network, particularly its sub-network on communicable diseases, is one the founding member of CORDS.

In 2007 SEEHN on communicable diseases started collaboration with MECID and together with other for regional networks they met in Bellagio.

 

In 2007, the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) supported the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) to convene a Bellagio meeting of regional surveillance networks from across the globe to initiate a dialogue about how to harness lessons learned, emerging technologies, and nascent support. Participants from many networks recognized the value in sharing approaches and strategies, while donors and other development partners recognized the opportunity to reduce fragmentation and increase efficiencies in the global surveillance space. Subsequently, RF, NTI, and existing regional surveillance networks created a community of practice, “Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance” (CORDS) (21, 22).

 

Among its first activities, the community formulated a steering group comprised of key regional network representatives to define a learning agenda. More recently, CORDS registered as a legal, non-profit international organization in Lyon, France, in 2012. CORDS convened the 1st Global Conference on Regional Disease Surveillance Networks at the Prince Mahidol Award Conference centre in 2013. Through these and other activities, CORDS is strengthening regional disease surveillance networks and global capacity for early detection and mitigation of pandemic threats.

Being a member of CORDS, the SEE Health Network both contributes to strengthening global surveillance and benefits from all opportunities CORDS can offer. thus, the SEE Health Network is increasing its collaboration with other networks, learning from their best practices, haveing the opportunity to exchange the experience and success stories with a larger public , sharing common training on ledarship, management, developing operational reasearch with other networks about important communicable diseases , establishing a regional One Health initiatve and helping cuntries use new technologies for disease surveillance, early warning and laboratories.

 

The full report of the Annecy Conference will soon be posted. More information about CORDS can be followed through its website: http://www.cordsnetwork.org/