July marked an important milestone for WHO – 100 Member States in little over 3 years have completed Joint External Evaluations (JEEs) to assess the strengths and gaps in their capacities to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to health emergencies.

The multisectoral, voluntary national evaluations are carried out jointly by countries, WHO and partners, and they help to identify how strong national capacities are for preparing for, and managing health emergencies.

The first JEE was launched in Tanzania in February 2016 and the 100th was in Haiti last month, which marked over 50% of all States Parties to the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005) as having completed the evaluation.

Achievements over time

This achievement highlights remarkable multisectoral engagement, investment, and collaboration, which would not have been possible without the commitment of WHO Member States, sister organizations, and international partners. The ongoing collaboration has reinforced the principles of transparency and mutual accountability, while strengthening global health emergency preparedness.

The JEE has continued to evolve since its inception, including WHO publication of an updated tool which takes into account lessons learned through the implementation of JEEs, and standardization of implementation guidance materials. The JEEs have supported the States Parties Annual Reporting (SPAR) process and recent analysis has shown how their findings, as well as those from the other components of the IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (IHRMEF), align to provide a holistic and enhanced representation of country capacity.

JEE data and application of findings

The outputs of JEEs have been extremely useful to countries, partners and all 3 levels of WHO. The JEEs have informed the development of comprehensive National Action Plans for Health Security (NAPHS) and they have helped the development of operational readiness in highly vulnerable settings, including the countries surrounding the Democratic Republic of Congo where an outbreak of Ebola virus disease is ongoing. 

All levels of WHO have drawn on the data from JEEs to inform strategies for helping countries improve national preparedness. The scale of this work is being expanded and insights from JEEs are being triangulated with outputs of other IHRMEF components including Simulation Exercises, After-Action Reviews and SPAR to support an even better understanding of where countries face weaknesses in their preparedness against health emergencies.

Looking ahead

WHO and partners are encouraged by the success of these first 100 JEEs and look forward to the important work of expanding the evaluations to even more countries. Work is underway to continue designing methodologies for the second round of the JEE, which will begin in 2020. Essential adaptations have also been recently made to the process in order to meet the unique challenges that special context countries face, including small-island developing states and countries in conflict.

The JEE process and findings will continue to support IHR capacity building and it will provide a comprehensive and multi-dimensional understanding of country capacities across 19 technical areas. JEEs will also further support the broader efforts needed to better mobilize resources and investments in global preparedness.

In recognition of the achievement of 100 JEEs, WHO has compiled videos and photos on the Strategic Partnership for International Health Regulations (2005) and Health Security portal (SPH) for viewing and sharing. Thank you and congratulations to all of our colleagues and partners.

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