National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), 2017-2021 has as goal to minimize human and animal morbidity and mortality associated with all public health events. The general objectives of the NAPHS are: 1) To prevent and reduce the likelihood of outbreaks and all public health hazards and events defined by IHR (2005); 2) To promptly detect threats (due to all hazards) to save lives and ensure proper control measures; 3) To establish a functional system for effective multi-sectoral national and international response to all public health events; 4) To establish and maintain the core capacities at designated points of entry for routine and timely detection and prompt effective response of any potential hazards; 5) To develop and sustain optimum capacity to prevent, detect and manage chemical events and radiation emergencies.
The Guiding Principles and Core Values that underpin the NAPHS are: country ownership and leadership - the state of Eritrea will provide political and technical oversight for all phases of the NAPHS; equity, gender mainstreaming and human rights will be promoted in the implementation of this plan; Community engagement is crucial unit in addressing health security and will be through a participatory approach in development and implementation of culturally acceptable and scientifically sound risk communication strategies; partnership, inter-sectoral and multi-disciplinary collaboration; efficiency; One Health Approach; evidence based initiatives and alignment to SDGs.