Health SecurityPractices
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Practice II — Health Security and Biosecurity
Building systems that survive Scenario X.
Most preparedness does not fail in the policy. It fails at the last mile — at the gate, on the apron, at the berth. We build, test and score the operational systems that decide whether a plan survives contact with an outbreak nobody planned for.
The practice
Technical partner, not vendor
Present Lab is the primary technical partner to the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health for modernising core capacities at points of entry, and a trusted advisor on the global pandemic-governance agenda — including national positions for the WHO Pandemic Accord (CA+) and the IHR review negotiations.
We work multi-hazard and One Health by default. A plan written only for the outbreak in front of you is a plan that expires. Everything we design is hazard-agnostic first, then tuned to the specific facility, corridor and command structure it has to run inside.
Who we work with
Ministries of health & IHR National Focal Points National security & defence agencies Port, airport & ground-crossing authorities Regional & multilateral health bodies Private operators of points of entryWhat we do
Six lines of work
Commissioned separately or sequenced into a multi-year readiness programme.
Point of Entry readiness
Develop, review and test public-health emergency contingency plans for airports, seaports, ground crossings and other modalities — plus bespoke capacity assessment using a tool adapted from the WHO Tool for Designated POEs to country context and need.
Linking public health to security
Bio-risk management capacity, tools for leveraging military assets during emergencies (asset matrices, medical-countermeasure registers, trade-corridor protocols), and civil–military simulation exercises for biological threats, in partnership with ONSA.
Policy & legal instruments
Draft, review and stress-test the legal and operational scaffolding — Port Health Services policy, bilateral and multilateral agreements, and POE implementation guidance across aviation, maritime and land borders.
Advanced surveillance
Feasibility and metagenomic scoping for aircraft wastewater surveillance on the NovaSeq X Plus platform — early warning for novel pathogens, with transparent per-sample unit economics.
Regional coordination
Facilitating cross-border infectious-disease information sharing across Nigeria, Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, and functional two-way links between POE surveillance and national systems.
Global health governance
Advising national high-level committees on positions for the WHO Pandemic Accord (CA+) and the IHR review negotiations — turning negotiating text into national implementation consequence.
Signature method
The POE service package
A scalable, multi-hazard, One-Health package built around a design-futures approach. Each component carries defined deliverables.
| Component | Expected outcome |
|---|---|
| Facility risk assessment | Report with an assigned facility score on the bespoke Health Security at POE Index, per IHR (2005) Annex 1B |
| Design / revision of POE facility plan | A hazard-agnostic Public Health Emergency Contingency Plan plus facility-bespoke response protocols |
| Facility-specific SOP design & testing | A set of facility-bespoke protocols for defined scenario categories |
| Simulation exercises (SimEx / TTX) | Master situation manual, facilitated exercise, hot-wash and cold debrief, evaluation report with gap-closure recommendations |
| Emergency management training | Training materials, on-site sessions and a training report tracking knowledge gain |
| Integration of coordination mechanisms | Formalised integration with port-wide, state and national preparedness systems |
Measurement
The POE Index
A quantified, re-scorable baseline that proves impact to ministries and donors — not a narrative claim that capacity improved.
Scored against the regulation
Routine capacities required at all times, and response capacities required during a public health emergency of international concern, assessed separately.
One defensible number
A single composite score per facility, decomposable to its contributing capacities so gaps are actionable rather than abstract.
A profile, not a verdict
Facilities are profiled across detection, coordination, response and continuity — showing where investment moves the score furthest.
Proof that it moved
Baseline and re-score bracket every engagement. We measure readiness, then prove it changed.
Capacity transfer
Capacity that stays
Primer workshop series
- Contingency planning, simulation exercises & foresight practice in global health security
- Primer to a playbook for contingency planning
- Coordination mechanisms in health security— mapping power & agency, and amplifying local agency
- Bilateral solutions for health security — a primer
Week-long in-depth sessions
- Health security for maritime travel
- Core capacities for health security in civil aviation
Work with this practice
Start with a facility risk assessment
A scored baseline first. From there, a contingency plan, a rehearsed response, or a multi-year programme — sequenced to what the score actually shows.
Request a scoping call Download the practice briefElsewhere at Present Lab
Four practices. One method.
Each practice runs its own team, partners and body of evidence — sharing only the studio’s methodological spine.