Collaborative Surveillance in Action

Collaborative surveillance, as defined in the 2022 flagship publication Defining Collaborative Surveillance, describes the systematic strengthening of capacity and collaboration among diverse stakeholders, both within and beyond the health sector, with the ultimate goal of enhancing public health intelligence and improving evidence for decision-making.

It has three main objectives: strengthened national integrated disease, threat and vulnerability surveillance; increased laboratory capacity for pathogen and genomic surveillance; and collaborative approaches for risk assessment, event detection and response monitoring.

Collaborative surveillance can strengthen surveillance through two ways: increasing capacity and increasing collaboration. The essential collaboration builds efficiencies in the system through various ways, such as harmonization of ways of working, interoperability of systems, cross-workforce capabilities and, where appropriate, multi-pathogen technologies. System enhancements can be added when capacities and collaborations reach certain levels of maturity to meet the specific country-level needs.

Countries worldwide have started putting collaborative surveillance into practice. The country case studies showcased below, highlight diverse national experiences, showing how multisectoral collaboration and data sharing are strengthening public health surveillance systems. Each case offers practical insights, challenges faced and lessons learned to inspire and inform similar efforts around the world.