ANU helps shape Pacific health security at regional meeting
Public health leaders from across the Pacific gathered in Fiji in late July to chart the region’s health security future.
The 2025 Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN) Regional Meeting brought together ministries of health, international partners and experts to strengthen collaboration and agree on priorities for the next decade.
The focus was to review the new PPHSN Strategic Framework 2026–2035. Discussions covered topics including typhoid control, emerging threats, and One Health, with delegates from member countries sharing their priorities.
Established in 1996, PPHSN is a voluntary network of countries and organisations dedicated to improving public health surveillance and response in the Pacific Islands in a sustainable way.
As an allied member of the network, the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH) contributes by helping build a robust applied epidemiology workforce through its Pacific Evidence for Informed Policies and Programs Plus (Pac-EVIPP+) project.
Pac-EVIPP+ lead Dr Rosalina Sa’aga-Banuve presented at the meeting, highlighting how the leadership training, mentorship, and advanced learning pathways supported by ANU have contributed to developing applied field epidemiology communities in the region.
The meeting identified several action items for Pac-EVIPP+, including adding ongoing epidemiology learning modules to the PPHSN website, joining the network’s discussion list, and confirming dates for upcoming workshops in the Solomon Islands and Nauru.
“It’s a whole process of strengthening in-country workforce and advancing the skills of in-country officers,” Dr Sa’aga-Banuve said, “The collaboration and discussions at PPHSN show we are moving in the right direction together.”
Pac-EVIPP+ alumni also made their mark. Dr Daniel Faktaufon, now Acting Head of Fiji’s Health Protection Unit, exemplified how Pac-EVIPP+-trained leaders are spearheading health security efforts in their home countries.
As the region faces rising challenges from climate change, infectious diseases and health-system pressures, the PPHSN Regional Meeting showcased how collective action and shared expertise are critical to safeguarding Pacific health security—and how support from partners like ANU is helping to build the capacity to do it.