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<p>The Department for International Development (DFID) recognises strong and resilient
national health systems are vital to global health security and helping to protect
the world from infectious diseases, including COVID-19.</p><p>Through our multilateral
partnerships, and our regional and national programmes, we support low-income countries
to make their health systems, including primary healthcare, stronger and more resilient,
and able to prevent, detect and respond to health threats, such as COVID-19.</p><p>UK
aid has a longstanding record of global support to countries to prepare for large
disease outbreaks. DFID provides continued and additional support to the World Health
Organization (WHO) and other UN agencies, using their leadership role, through providing
technical assistance, setting norms and standards and tracking progress to help countries
address key Health System Strengthening bottlenecks.</p><p>The Department of Health
and Social Care’s £21 million International Health Regulations (IHR) Strengthening
Project builds capacity in six countries across Africa and Asia to enable them to
observe the IHRs and better enable them to prevent, detect and respond to infectious
disease threats.</p><p>In addition to the UK’s significant annual funding to the WHO
of around £120 million, the UK has committed an additional £10 million to the WHO’s
Emergency Flash Appeal through to April and additional funding for other international
partners who are helping developing countries develop and deliver their own response
to the virus. We are pressing WHO and the UN to develop a follow-up consolidated appeal
to address the COVID-19 health and priority secondary impacts developing countries.</p>
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