National Public Health Institute Legal Framework: A Tool to Build Public Health Capacity

As countries face public health emergencies, building public health capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to threats is a priority. In recent years, national public health institutes (NPHIs) have emerged to play a critical role in strengthening public health systems and to accelerate and achieve implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005). NPHIs are science-based government institutions that provide national leadership and expertise for the country's efforts to protect and improve health. Providing a Legal Framework for a National Public Health Institute is a recently released Africa CDC publication intended to support NPHI development throughout Africa. Here we present a legal mapping analysis of sampled legal domains for 5 countries, using the "Menu of Considerations for an NPHI Legal Framework." The analysis delineates the types of legal authorities countries may use to establish or enhance NPHIs and demonstrates how legal mapping can be used to review legal instruments for NPHIs. It also demonstrates variability among legal approaches countries take to establish and enable public health functions for NPHIs. This article examines how the legal framework and menu of considerations can help countries understand the nuances around creating and implementing the laws that will govern their organizations and how countries can better engage stakeholders to identify or address potential areas for opportunity where law may be used as a tool to strengthen public health infrastructure.