Assessment of health security and crises management capacity, Republic of Moldova

March 2008

“Support to health security and preparedness planning in EU neighbouring countries”, a WHO Regional Office for Europe project supported by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Consumers, has the overall objective of assessing national capacity to respond to public health emergencies and implement the International Health Regulations (IHR) in selected European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) countries while promoting a multisectoral approach to ensure the interoperability of existing public health emergency plans and their coherence with the EU policies and strategies. After negotiation with the relevant ministries of health, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova were selected for assessment.

In February-March 2008, a WHO multidisciplinary team, in cooperation with local counterparts, carried out the assessment in the Republic of Moldova using a newly-developed standardized assessment tool to evaluate the health risks, the status of generic emergency plans and the interoperability of public health emergency plans in the country. The WHO health system framework was used as the conceptual basis for describing and analysing the health system. The report includes the conclusions of the assessment team as regards generic preparedness planning, the IHR, chemical safety and climate change and health in relation to disaster preparedness and response.

Keywords

Security measures, Disease outbreaks, Natural disasters, Emergencies, Civil defence, Republic of Moldova