The monitoring and evaluation framework of the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR-MEF) is made up of 4 instruments: mandatory States Parties Annual Reporting (SPAR) and 3 voluntary instruments, voluntary external evaluation, after-action review (AAR) and simulation exercises (SimEx). The latter 2 were proposed by the WHO Secretariat to address the recommendations of the IHR review committee in May 2015 that States Parties should move from exclusive self-evaluation to a combined approach of self-evaluation, peer review and voluntary external evaluation by both domestic and independent experts. The committee also recommended that States Parties urgently conduct in-depth reviews of significant disease outbreaks and public health events (PHEs). Between 2016 and February 2019, WHO headquarters in collaboration with regional and country offices supported 45 AARs and 97 SimEx as part of IHR monitoring and evaluation. This article summarizes the trends, common strengths and gaps in emergency preparedness and response identified through AARs and SimEx in 2018.
Area of work
Evidence and Analytics for Health Security (EHS)
EHS Theme
International Health Regulations capacity building for emergency preparedness
