Joint External Evaluation (JEE)
The JEE is a voluntary, collaborative, multisectoral process to comprehensively assess country capacity to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to public health risks in the framework of the International Health Regulations. JEE results inform the development of the national action plans for implementing commitments to the IHR.
The benefits of a JEE
The JEE helps countries to identify their most critical gaps in IHR core capacity implementation, in order to prioritize actions to improve preparedness and response capacities. The JEE process is also an opportunity to engage to enhance national multisectoral coordination and networking, and to raise stakeholders’ awareness on health security issues and IHR.
JEE assessment
The JEE process consists of two parts:
- A country self-evaluation, during which a multisectoral group of stakeholders jointly evaluate national capacities within the 19 technical areas of the JEE tool. The self-evaluation takes three months on average and results in a country self-evaluation report.
- An external evaluation (generally 5 days), during which a team of external experts in collaboration with the national counterparts, review the country self-evaluation results, and agree on the score, status and identified recommended actions for each indicator. The external evaluation consists of plenary discussions with the relevant national sectors and site visits.
The JEE assesses 19 technical areas organized in the following core elements:
- prevention and reduction of the likelihood of outbreaks and other public health hazards;
- detection of threats;
- provision of a rapid and effective response that includes multisectoral, national and international coordination and communication.
WHO tools and support
WHO has developed a suite of tools to support countries in conducting a JEE self-assessment and external mission. WHO EURO will accompany the State Party in planning the JEE and will compose and coordinate the external expert team. WHO EURO also recommends considering conducting an orientation workshop to initiate the self-assessment with the multisectoral stakeholder group in order to introduce the process and agree on an overall timeline. WHO EURO can provide technical support for the orientation workshop.
