There is no one single definition for “One Health” used by everyone worldwide. In general, the term refers to taking a multisectoral, multi-disciplinary approach and ensuring communication, collaboration, and coordination among all relevant ministries, agencies, stakeholders, sectors, and disciplines, for optimal action.
The IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework provides an overview of approaches to review implementation of country core public health capacities under the IHR (2005). The Framework ensures the mutual accountability of States Parties and the Secretariat for global public health security through transparent reporting and dialogue.
Under the International Health Regulations(IHR) 2005 all States Parties are required to have or develop and maintain minimum core public health capacities to implement the IHR (2005), and report the status of implementation annually, as stipulated in Article 54 of the Regulations.
The formal submission of data from State Parties to the WHO via the IHR annual reports is very important and will be used as the basis for:
reporting to the World Health Assembly, on the status of implementation of these Regulations;
informing the GPW 13 indicator on emergency preparedness; and
informing UN SDG Goal 3 for indicator 3.d.1 – International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity and health emergency preparedness.
Detailed information on 2019 and previous years up to 2010 of the IHR annual reporting by State Parties are primarily published and available on e-SPAR platform and also at the WHO Global Health Observatory website
The Joint External Evaluation (JEE) is part of the IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework and is a voluntary, multi-sectoral process to assess country capacity to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to public health risks. The JEE allows countries to identify the most urgent needs within their health security system; to prioritize opportunities for enhanced preparedness, detection and response capacity, including setting national priorities; and to allocate resources based on the findings.
An After Action Review (AAR) is a qualitative review of actions taken to respond to an event as a means of identifying best practices, lessons and gaps in a country’s public health emergency preparedness and response capacity as part of a process of continual improvement and collective learning. Key stakeholders such as responders and decision-makers have the opportunity to reflect on what happened during the response, and share experiences to critically and systematically review what was in place before the response, what happened during the response, what went well and less well, why events occurred as they did, and how to institutionalize best practices and improve on gaps observed. Ultimately, the goal of the AAR is for individual and collective learning to be better prepared for the next public health event or emergency. AARs are conducted through the different formats of the AAR: Debrief AAR; Working group AAR; Key informant interview AAR; and Mixed-method AAR. For more information, please go to the official AAR WHO webpage.
A simulation exercise is a form of practice, training, monitoring or evaluation of capabilities, involving the description or simulation of an emergency to which a described or simulated response is made. Simulation exercises can develop and assess preparedness and response plans, procedures and systems for all hazards and capabilities. WHO defines different types of exercises, including discussion-based table top exercises as well as operations-based exercises such as drills, functional exercises and field/full scale exercises. Specifically, simulation exercises aim to:
Assess plans and procedures, operational guidelines and standard operating procedures;
Assess interoperability between these plans and procedures;
Reveal planning weaknesses and resource gaps
Improve coordination and collaboration;
Clarify roles and responsibilities;
Practice and clarify chain of command;
Develop knowledge and skills for emergency response;
Familiarize staff with new functions and equipment
Gain recognition and trust in the emergency management processes.
NOTE:
Intra-Action Review
In light of the protracted and unpredictable nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, countries may wish to conduct periodic reviews during the event so they can continue to reflect on the ongoing response and revise national and subnational response strategies and plans as needed to change the trajectory of the epidemic. WHO, having recognized this need, developed the Guidance for conducting a Country COVID-19 intra-action review (IAR) and accompanying tools. A Country COVID-19 Intra-Action Review (IAR) is a country-led facilitated process that allows stakeholders of the ongoing COVID-19 response to review the functional capacities of public health and emergency response systems at the national or subnational levels to identify best practices, gaps and lessons learned, and propose corrective measures and actions for immediate remediation or sustained improvement of the COVID-19 outbreak response. Although not an official component of the IHRMEF, intra-action reviews have been issued as one of the temporary recommendations to State Parties during the fourth meeting of the International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) convened by the WHO Director-General on 31 July 2020. Moving forward, there is also the opportunity to use intra-action reviews for other protracted public health events beyond COVID-19.
The IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework provides an overview of approaches to review implementation of country core public health capacities under the IHR (2005). The Framework ensures the mutual accountability of States Parties and the Secretariat for global public health security through transparent reporting and dialogue.
To help ensure that laboratories can effectively play a critical role in the prevention, detection, and control of diseases, current and emerging laboratory leaders worldwide need specialized training in leadership and management.
Leading organizations partnered to develop the Global Laboratory Leadership Programme (GLLP) targeting human and animal health laboratories, as well as laboratories with public health impact (environmental, agricultural, food, or chemical laboratories). The partners are:
The six partners enlisted the expertise of over 140 global experts in human and animal health and laboratory science for the development of the GLLP. The partners are committed to the programme’s vision of laboratory leaders empowering national laboratory systems across the globe using a One Health approach to strengthen health security.
Laboratory Leadership Competency Framework
International experts agree that laboratory leaders need certain core competencies to meet national, regional, and global disease prevention and control objectives. The GLLP encapsulates the following nine core competencies outlined in the Laboratory Leadership Competency Framework :
The programme, available for virtual or in-person implementation, is flexible in length, format, and content and may be adapted to meet country-specific workforce needs. The GLLP Learning Package provides the materials necessary to implement programmes in any country or educational institution in the world and includes:
GLLP Planning and Implementation Guide
GLLP Mentorship Guide
Virtual and in-person course materials including PowerPoint presentations and instructor and participant guides
The GLLP course materials include four sections (Introduction, Laboratory Management, Laboratory Leadership, and Laboratory Systems) comprising 13 units and 43 modules, with over 200 contact hours' worth of materials, all with a strong One Health focus.
To help ensure that laboratories can effectively play a critical role in the prevention, detection, and control of diseases, current and emerging laboratory leaders worldwide need specialized training in leadership and management.
A simulation exercise (SimEx) can help develop, assess and test functional capabilities of emergency systems, procedures and mechanisms to be able to respond to outbreaks or public health emergencies.
The video will explains in 4 minutes the SimEx practice as promoted by WHO, including the definition, the different types of SimEx (table top exercise, drill, functional exercise and field/full scale exercise) and available resources.
Data Source: World Health Organization (WHO) Map Production: WHO Health Emergencies Programme
Data as of 26 of Jun 2025 Ⓒ WHO 2014. All rights reserved.
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.Grey areas on the map represent territories for which there may not yet be full agreement.
A simulation exercise (SimEx) can help develop, assess and test functional capabilities of emergency systems, procedures and mechanisms to be able to respond to outbreaks or public health emergencies.
The video will explains in 4 minutes the SimEx practice as promoted by WHO, including the definition, the different types of SimEx (table top exercise, drill, functional exercise and field/full scale exercise) and available resources.
Simulation exercise types
Generally, there are four fundamental types of exercises that can be split in two categories:
Discussion-based exercises:
Table Top exercises (TTX): A Table Top exercise is a facilitated discussion of an emergency situation, generally in an informal, low-stress environment. It is designed to elicit constructive participant discussion, to identify and resolve problems and refine existing operational plans. This is the only type of simulation exercise that does not require an existing response plan in place.
Operations-based exercises:
Drill (DR): A drill is a coordinated, supervised exercise activity, normally used to test or train a single specific operation or function in a repeated fashion. A drill aims to practice and perfect one small part of the response plan and should be as realistic as possible, employing any equipment or apparatus for the specific function.
Functional exercises (FX):
A functional exercise is a fully simulated interactive exercise that tests the capability of an organization to respond to a simulated event. The exercise tests multiple functions of the organization’s operational plan. It is a coordinated response to a situation in a time pressured, realistic situation. A functional exercise focuses on the coordination, integration, and interaction of an organization’s policies, procedures, roles and responsibilities before, during, or after the simulated event.
Full-scale/field exercises (FSX):
A full-scale exercise simulates a real event as closely as possible and is designed to evaluate the operational capability of emergency management systems in a highly stressful environment, simulating actual response conditions. This includes the mobilization and movement of emergency personnel, equipment and resources. Ideally, the full-scale exercise should test and evaluate most functions of the emergency management plan or operational plan. Differing from the FX, a full-scale exercise typically involves multiple agencies and participants physically deployed in an exercise field location.
Field exercises: See full-scale exercise.
A field exercise is one form of full-scale exercise, focusing on more specific capacities or series of capacities, such as procedures for Rapid Response Teams (RRT), laboratory analysis or other sample collection and transport.
Exercises are not one-time events, but should be undertaken as part of a carefully designed exercise program which ensures a common strategic objective is addressed. A comprehensive exercise program is made up of progressively complex exercises, which build upon the previous, until they are as close to reality as possible. This ‘building-block approach’ should start with basic exercises that test specific aspects of preparedness and response, followed by progressively complex exercises requiring additional preparation time and resources.
The purpose of this module is to introduce students to the terminology, concepts and principles of simulation exercise management in line with the WHO Simulation Exercise Management Manual.
On completion of this online course, you should be able to:
Explain the benefits of simulation exercises as used in the public health domain.
Demonstrate a general knowledge of the terminology, concepts and principles described in the WHO Exercise Manual (2017).
Describe the different phases of the exercise project cycle (planning, conduct and post-exercise).
Select the type of exercise appropriate for a specific purpose and objectives.
Expected audience: IHR NFPs, WHO staff, Health professionals and partners, any person interested in public health simulation exercises.
Please note that an audio is available for this course.