The 19-20 June Global Health Security 2019 Conference (GHS 2019) took place in Sydney, Australia where WHO highlighted innovative approaches for building health emergency preparedness as a major participant at

WHO hosted a side event at the conference on “Scaling Up Health Emergency Preparedness” to explore how preparedness levels can be strengthened and to highlight challenges and recent progress in building emergency preparedness and health system resilience. The side event also focused on identifying new approaches for supporting countries to identify critical gaps and build capacities.

WHO staff also gave keynote addresses, presentations and moderated sessions during the GHS 2019 conference. High-level participants included Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, Dr Takeshi Kasai, Regional Director of the WHO Western Pacific Region, and Dr Jaouad Mahjour, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and IHR.

Proceedings at both the WHO side event and the overall conference illustrated the importance of identifying successful application of strategies and policies that work, and understanding how to scale them up.

The WHO side event brought together more than 100 participants and underscored the significance of adapting health emergency preparedness and response measures for outbreaks of high threat pathogens, including vaccine-based interventions. The need to engage sectors beyond the traditional health field in building preparedness was also a major theme of the side event. There was discussion of new WHO guidance and tools for multisectoral preparedness coordination and for strengthening national and regional collaboration between the civilian and military health sectors.

WHO’s side event explored innovations in building preparedness through After-Action Reviews, the necessity of collaboration on food safety emergencies, and the critical issue of harmful travel and trade restrictions imposed on countries affected by disease outbreaks — with discussion of ways forward to reduce unnecessary restrictions and improve compliance with the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005).

The GHS 2019 conference - part of the Australian Government's Health Security Initiative for the Indo-Pacific region - opened the day after the WHO side event with a video message from WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. WHO’s participation in nearly 20 sessions of the two-day conference helped to inform the development of the Sydney Statement on Global Health Security; a set of principles designed to guide collective action in addressing global health security threats.

The Sydney Statement emphasizes the link between health security and achievement of Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals, and the need for a One Health approach with strong multisectoral partnerships and financing mechanisms to support global health security.