SWOT Analysis of Communicable Disease Surveillance in Sudan

Abstract Effective communicable disease surveillance is critical to addressing the compounded health impacts of concurrent epidemics, health systems collapse, and acute conflict in Sudan. This paper aims to map Sudan's communicable disease surveillance systems' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats before the current conflict. Understanding this is essential to future efforts to rebuild the health system. Despite existing for 50 years, little is published on Sudan’s disease surveillance systems and specifically the extent to which and how these systems have supported outbreak responses in the past. We conducted a scoping review to map the existing evidence on Sudan’s surveillance systems. We used a SWOT analysis to identify current and future gaps and opportunities to improve the performance of these systems for communicable diseases in Sudan. Our review shows that, prior to the conflict, disease-specific surveillance and response activities were fragmented across various divisions of the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH). This made it difficult to have a clear surveillance and response hierarchy at the national level. Sudan has committed to strengthening its disease surveillance system as part of its national health sector policy. Efforts to bolster pandemic preparedness and response were and continue to be recognised as critical. Chiefly among them is the need to invest in a fit-for-purpose national surveillance system that can operate against a background of acute crisis. Greater transparency and data sharing, clear guidelines for communication and collaboration, and a centralised data management system can enhance the effectiveness of Sudan's communicable disease surveillance systems. Investment in a consolidated national surveillance system can support more efficient and coordinated responses to outbreaks and other health emergencies, with a view to future health system reconstruction.