In July this year, WHO officially requested all States Parties to the IHR to begin Self-Assessment Annual Reporting for 2019. To support this process, WHO launched an Electronic State Parties Self-Assessment Annual Reporting Tool web-based platform (e-SPAR), that allows online reporting in addition to the regular fillable PDF form, making the process easier for State Parties. e-SPAR also hosts all of the retrospective States Parties Annual Reporting (SPAR) data since 2010 as well as other key resources and links.

Following WHO’s call, State Parties are now beginning the process of multisectoral engagement in reviewing and completing SPAR for this year. In 2018, the new IHR SPAR tool and its companion guidance document were used for the first time. (available at: https://www.who.int/ihr/publications/WHO-WHE-CPI-2018.16/en/). The results of this were presented to the WHA and published online at the e-SPAR website.

During the SPAR 2018 reporting period, all three levels of WHO worked closely with State Parties to support reporting and to ensure the quality of the reports. Virtual and face-to-face meetings, sub-regional training sessions and follow up with IHR-NFPs ensured the high quality of the data provided. As a result, WHO received the highest number of country responses to the annual questionnaire since 2010. This support will continue to be strengthened for the SPAR 2019 period, with more tutorials and guidance targeted at countries to help them use e-SPAR.

Of the 190 State Parties responding in 2018, 182 (93%) used the new SPAR format. The higher rate of reporting was evident from all WHO regions, with three regions having a 100% of their countries reporting (AFRO, EMRO & SEARO). Other regions did extremely well also with each one achieving more than 85% of all countries responding (AMRO/PAHO (31/35=89%); EURO (49/55=89%); WPRO (23/27=85%)).

In addition to supporting countries in building their IHR capacities, the information received through SPAR is being used to track important progress against global frameworks for public health including the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3 (ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages) and WHO’s Thirteenth General Programme of Work.

The technical tools, related links and results are shared on e-SPAR and the platform is also where average results of the 13 IHR capacities and its indicators can be seen according to each region or by State Party.

Further information: ihrmonitoring@who.int  - e-SPAR website

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