Table 1 Overview of SET areas, categories and indicators

Institutional organization

Central institutional organization

7

Existence of an operational management structure; Existence of steering and technical/scientific committees; Existence of formal description of the system’s organization and operations; Vertical coordination and supervision of field level units; and Adequacy of central level resources.

Field institutional organization

8

Formalization, coverage and representativeness of field units; Vertical and horizontal coordination between field units; Supervision of field units; and Adequacy of resources.

Intersectoral collaborations

4

Coordination with private, public health and environmental sectors.

Laboratory

Operational aspects

2

Effective integration of laboratories in the surveillance system; and Adequacy of resources.

Technical aspects

8

Quality assurance mechanisms including tests, laboratory reagent control and inter-laboratory proficiency testing; Work standardization between laboratories; Field laboratory support; and Relevance, sensitivity and specificity of tests.

Analytical aspects

3

Laboratory data management; and Timeliness and quality of laboratory reports.

Surveillance activities

Objectives and context of surveillance

4

Quality and formalization of surveillance objectives; and Relevance of priority diseases

Surveillance data collection

14

Existence and quality of surveillance plans; Existence and quality of data collection tools; Existence and quality of case definitions; Completeness and timeliness of disease reports; Appropriate sample collection; and Timeliness of results delivery.

Surveillance procedures

9

Existence and quality of surveillance protocols; Existence and quality of active surveillance activities; Existence of wildlife surveillance; and Existence of vector surveillance.

Animal health investigations

2

Availability of animal health investigation teams; and Quality and timeliness of investigations.

Risk assessment

2

Implementation and usefulness of animal health risk assessments.

Workforce

Workforce management

5

Planning, Terms of Reference (ToRs) and qualification of epidemiology staff; and Existence of sufficient manpower for surveillance.

Training

4

Existence and overall quality of initial and refresher surveillance staff trainings; and Adequacy of resources for trainings.

Data management

Information system

2

Adequacy and quality of the data management system for the needs of the system.

Data processing and exploiting

5

Existence of protocols, quality and timeliness of data entry, validation and analysis; Existence of sufficient trained staff for data entry, management and analysis; and Adequacy of resources for data management and analysis.

Communication

Internal communication

4

Existence, timeliness and completeness of surveillance reports; Existence and timeliness of feedback to field actors; and Existence of horizontal and vertical communication mechanisms within the surveillance system.

External communication

3

Existence and timeliness of newsletters; Existence and implementation of an external communication policy; and Adequacy of resources for communication.

Evaluation

Internal evaluation

2

Existence, quality, timeliness and use of performance indicators for the continuous improvement of the surveillance system.

External evaluation

2

Existence and use of external evaluations for improvement of the surveillance system.