Ever wondered how much will it cost a laboratory to implement routine genomics activities annually? Or how a laboratory can get the best value for money for its genomics activities? Or how a laboratory can budget for a scale-up of its genomics activities?

These are the questions WHO is addressing as it supports countries in strengthening and sustaining the gains made over the last three years in genomics for pathogens with pandemic and epidemic potential.

Responding to country requests and recognizing the value it adds, the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Association of Public Health Laboratories, FIND, The Global Fund and the UK Health Security Agency has developed a genomics costing tool. This tool is designed to support financial planning and budgeting for routine sequencing and bioinformatics across the genomics value chain. It costs infrastructure, reagents and consumables, human resources, quality management, facility overhead costs, etc.

On 10 – 11 October 2023, the WHO Namibia Country Office, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) organized a practical workshop on the costing tool at the Namibia Institute of Pathology, Windhoek, Namibia. The workshop brought together laboratory scientists, quality managers, finance, and procurement officers to train them on the use of the genomics costing tool for SARS-CoV-2. The workshop aimed to orient/train the laboratory workers on the usage of the genomics costing tool and obtain end user experience on the tool usage.

WHO is fully committed to providing strategic and technical support to countries in building and strengthening their genomic surveillance capacities. This effort aligns with the Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy for Pathogens with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential 2022- 2032, as well as the Transforming African Surveillance Systems flagship programme of WHO/AFRO. In addition to the genomics costing tool, WHO has recently released a step by step guide to assist countries in developing their national genomic surveillance strategy.

Participants at the workshop in Namibia expressed the invaluable use of the tool in helping the country with financial planning and budgeting to scale up their genomics capacity. This is a critical step towards achieving sustainable genomics in the country.