Strengthening global health security by embedding the International Health Regulations requirements into national health systems

Kluge, Hans; Martín-Moreno, Jose Maria; Emiroglu, Nedret; Rodier, Guenael; Kelley, Edward; Vujnovic, Melitta; Permanand, Govin

Additionally, the organisation is heeding calls for 'housekeeping'. 28 The implementation of the IHR (2005) is often done in a vertical manner, outside the health system strengthening effort at national level. This situation traditionally reflects a similar issue within WHO, where the IHR programme is seen as a vertical one even though it overlaps with other frameworks (eg, UHC, the Sustainable Development Goals, Essential Public Health Functions/Operations), with individual departments BMJ Global Health and with other programmes responsible for delivering in IHR-related areas (eg, the antimicrobial resistance and vaccine preventable diseases programmes). The imperative for improving internal coherence and joint working has led to the creation of the new WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE). Designed to build up WHO's effective operational role in emergency preparedness and during health crises, its establishment reflects a key recommendation of the Ebola Interim Assessment Panel report. 8 The new programme has one workforce, one budget, one line of accountability, one set of processes/ systems and one set of benchmarks, and maintains a standing interdepartmental task force at headquarters and regional office levels.