With 242 million people, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa—and one of the most connected. This scale brings immense opportunity, but it also the potential for disease to spread at lightning speed. Historically, Nigeria’s ability to respond has been constrained by fragmented health data systems. While international partners provided support, some disease data was missed because the data has long been housed and analyzed in separate sectors.

Recognizing that “bad data in is bad information out,” The Global Fund partnered with The Task Force for Global Health to launch SONAR (Strengthening Outbreak Notification and Response). SONAR is a unique collaboration that leverages two Task Force programs—the Partnership for International Vaccine Initiative’s model of building sustainable, country-owned health systems, and the Public Health Informatics Institute’s data-system expertise. Working alongside Africa CDC and WHO, the mission was clear: move from analogue, fragmented reporting to a sustainable, integrated surveillance network where the technology is scaled, efficient, and reliable.

In collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the SONAR team worked with local experts to bridge the capacity gap. A key technical pillar of this work involved optimizing SORMAS (Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System). As an open-source mobile eHealth system, SORMAS allows for real-time digital surveillance that reaches beyond large hospitals to peripheral health care facilities and laboratories. By making these digital tools interoperable and providing direct technical assistance—such as mentoring Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNOs) on case investigation forms—SONAR ensures that the technology serves the people on the front lines.

However, the true foundation of the project remains Community Event-Based Surveillance (CEBS). SONAR recognizes that even the most sophisticated technical system is only useful if it receives timely, accurate inputs. The core of this work is ensuring people on the ground are trained to recognize health issues out of the ordinary—the “signals.” By engaging traditional leaders, health workers, and community members, SONAR establishes a clear pathway where signals are gathered, reported, and verified. This human-led process ensures that early “sparks” are not just observed, but transformed into actionable public health recommendations.

By 2025, this collaboration reached a landmark success in national ownership. A key milestone was the operationalization of the Africa CDC Data Sharing Agreement, a process catalyzed by SONAR that empowered the NCDC to manage and share quality data independently through its Central Data Repository (CDR).

“Effective health security depends on who controls and uses data for timely decision-making,” said Dr. Merawi Aragaw, Director of Africa CDC’s Division for Surveillance and Disease Intelligence. “The CDR strengthens Africa CDC’s ability to generate continental insights and detect and respond to public health emergencies, while enabling Member States to retain data ownership through a federated model and make accurate, evidence-based decisions.”

Nigeria’s success is a cornerstone of a much larger vision. SONAR has provided technical assistance to 14 countries across Africa and Asia (including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Philippines, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania). By integrating national reporting tools with community-level training, SONAR is building a global early-warning shield—ensuring that when the next threat emerges, the world has the high-quality data needed to see it, report it, and stop it.