At December meetings in Hong Kong the WHO Strategic Partnership for IHR and Health Security (SPH) held global consultations on pandemic influenza preparedness and improving collaboration between military and civilian health sectors. 

The meetings sparked action on both fronts. During the 10-12 December Global Technical Consultation on Strengthening National Health Security through Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Planning, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya and Uganda offered to test the pandemic capacity progress indicator (PCPI) and resource mapping tools developed by SPH to help countries with their pandemic influenza preparedness plans. Fewer than 13 percent of countries have updated their preparedness plan in the past four years. More worryingly, more than a hundred countries have no plan at all. 

“There are critical tools now available through the WHO SPH and it is important that each country take advantage of those tools so they can prepare their own national plan,” said Dr Rick Bright, deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than 110 participants from 44 countries attended the consultation, which is following up on a 2017 meeting in Ghana that brought global health security and influenza networks together for the first time. 

The influenza meeting was immediately followed in Hong Kong by the 13-14 December Technical Consultation on National Cross-Sectoral Collaboration Between Security and Health Sectors with 51 participants representing Member States, partners and non-governmental actors. Attendees laid the groundwork for a National Collaboration Framework (NCF) to assist Member States in developing civil-military collaboration for health security. 

SPH is finalizing the framework based on input from the meeting. Piloting in countries will soon begin, in Indonesia, Thailand, Ghana and Uganda requesting support. Participants in the consultation, which followed a 2017 meeting in Indonesia, said it is critical to ensure long-term civil-military collaboration for preparedness, before an emergency and not just joint action during times of emergency.