Description: Background: Climate change alters risks associated with climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIDs) with pandemic potential. This poses additional threats to already vulnerable populations, further amplified by intersecting social factors, such as gender and socioeconomic status. Currently, critical evidence gaps and inadequate institutional and governance mechanisms impact on the ability for African States to prevent, detect and respond to CSIDs. The aim of this study was to explore the role of economics and data systems to support priority setting for CSID preparedness in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Methodology: We conducted a rapid scoping review to identify existing knowledge and gaps relevant to economics and data systems. We performed a literature search across six bibliographic databases in November 2023. We adopted a list of 14 target pathogens from those identified by the World Health Organization as Public Health Emergencies of International Concern or Research & Development Blueprint Pathogens and compared these to a database of CSIDs to identify relevant inclusion criteria. We synthesised extracted data using bibliometric analysis, thematic topic categorisation, and narrative synthesis to identify research needs encompassing evidence gaps, limitations, and constraints for priority setting. 

Results: We identified 68 relevant studies. While African author involvement from 2010 – 2023 has been increasing, there were few studies led by senior authors from African institutions. Data system studies (n = 50) showed a large degree of heterogeneity, indicating a lack of clearly defined standards for data systems related to pandemic preparedness. Economic studies (n = 18) on CSIDs were primarily focused on COVID-19 and Ebola and originated from South Africa. Both data system and economic studies identified limited data sharing across human, animal, and environmental sectors and showed a notable absence of gender sensitivity analyses. These important gaps underscore opportunities to support priority setting and decision-making for pandemic preparedness, ultimately leading to more equitable health outcomes.