WHO’s action plan to improve public health preparedness and response in the European Region
The European Region has tailored the global WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) into a European Action Plan to Improve Public Health Preparedness and Response, 2018–2023. The plan bonds countries with comparable levels of capacity and capability to help each other avert or respond to emergencies. The approach of linking emergency preparedness with health systems strengthening and essential public health functions represents a real breakthrough on the way to universal health coverage.
The Plan was agreed upon at the Regional Committee for Europe in September 2018. It is based on three pillars:
- preparedness: building, maintaining and strengthening IHR core capacities;
- response: enhancing event management according to IHR requirements;
- monitoring and evaluation: measuring progress and promoting accountability on IHR implementation.
The Plan requires cooperation across sectors and across borders. WHO invites all governments, sectors, partners and people in the European Region to jointly implement the Action Plan, taking stock of collective expertise and know-how. This will support global efforts to prevent, prepare for, respond to and recover from all health emergencies, while contributing to protecting one billion more people worldwide. In short, implementing the Action Plan will move forward countries’ work on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which focuses on leaving no one behind.
The outcome summary of the ministerial consultation and high-level meeting held on 12–14 February 2019 in Istanbul, Turkey, gives the European Regional Office a stronger mandate to coordinate action to accelerate countries’ political and financial commitments. More than 150 European ministers of health and high-level delegates gathered in Istanbul; sustained investment, mutual learning and support, and regular monitoring of progress were identified as being critical to the scale-up of health emergency preparedness and response in the WHO European Region.
