CIDRZ, with support from the CDC Foundation and in collaboration with the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) and Ministry of Health (MoH), has concluded a three-day inception meeting to strengthen Zambia’s Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system.

The meeting brought together surveillance, monitoring and evaluation, laboratory, and public health experts to review surveillance indicators, improve assessment tools, and strengthen mentorship approaches for continuous quality improvement in health facilities.

Participants refined surveillance indicators, standardised data sources and verification methods, and discussed ways to improve surveillance performance, documentation, laboratory reporting, and outbreak reporting. The meeting also emphasised the need to orient and support all personnel involved in surveillance activities, including volunteers and temporary staff.

A key outcome was the agreement to digitise revised supervision and mentorship tools using electronic data collection platforms. This will improve data quality, enable real-time monitoring, and support evidence-based decision-making.

Baseline assessments will now be conducted in selected priority districts before mentorship visits begin, contributing to stronger, more standardised public health surveillance across Zambia.