Event highlights
1 July 2024
The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on the development of a strategy and action plan on health emergency preparedness, response, and resilience in the WHO European Region (Preparedness 2.0) gathered virtually for its sixth meeting on 21 June 2024.
This information session provided TAG members with an overview of the outcomes of the 77th World Health Assembly and updates to the Preparedness 2.0 draft in relation to the many recent engagements with Member States, WHO collaborating centres, and non-State actors of the WHO European Region.
“Your support and invaluable guidance have really paid off, and enabled us to have a strong document to present during the many consultations held over the past weeks,” said Dr Gundo Weiler, WHO acting Regional Emergency Director.
TAG members had the opportunity to reflect on the recent updates to the Preparedness 2.0 draft, and on the implementation support package that will accompany the strategy and action plan.
“We are very keen to hear from you today on how to make guidance and tools more interactive and how this could be presented digitally and easy for the Member States to use,” said Dr Gail Carson, Preparedness 2.0 TAG Chair.
The next steps notably include a written consultation for Member States until mid-August, and a period for non-State actors and WHO collaborating centres to provide input on the implementation support package. The final Preparedness 2.0 strategy and action plan, alongside the implementation support package, will be presented for consideration to the 74th session of the Regional Committee for Europe in October 2024.
Event notice
This sixth meeting of the Preparedness 2.0 Technical Advisory Group (TAG) will be an information session on the development of the second draft of the working document, which will become the Strategy and Action Plan (Preparedness 2.0). The development of this second draft has relied on a number of consultation processes that have occurred since the last TAG meeting on 26–27 February. Processes which have informed the development of the second draft include an internal review within WHO/Europe’s Health Emergencies Programme, a divisional review inside WHO/Europe, and oral and written feedback from the first online consultation on Preparedness 2.0 with the Member States of the WHO European Region (14 May).
This meeting will also offer an opportunity for the TAG to be informed of the development of the implementation support guide, which will sit alongside the Strategy and Action Plan, and to reflect on its content and structure.
Other updates to be shared include the outcomes of the 77th World Health Assembly (WHA 77); in particular, the adoption of the package of amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005), the way forward of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body and their work on the WHO Pandemic Agreement, and what these outcomes mean and how they have been incorporated into the Preparedness 2.0 working document.
Expected outcomes from the sixth meeting of the TAG include:
- information on the consultation processes and development of the draft of Preparedness 2.0 Strategy and Action Plan that have occurred since the last TAG meeting and recent developments to the global health security architecture; and
- feedback on and input into the Preparedness 2.0 information document (i.e. implementation support guide).