The WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for Global Outbreak Alert and Response (GOARN) has launched a series of educational courses aimed at improving emergency response among health and policy leaders across the European Region and the globe. The purpose of these courses is to promote unified and confident action in the face of potential public health disasters.
The Information Centre for International Health Protection (INIG/ZIG 1) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has been a designated WHO CC since 2019. In May 2024, it supported the second in a series of face-to face leadership courses in Amman, Jordan, and continues to support the GOARN Operational Support Team at WHO to deliver further leadership capacity strengthening capabilities in other regions.
Strengthening leadership capacity
During the courses, participants explore a range of topics, including advanced interpersonal and collective situational awareness, handling polarizing tensions, forging connections across boundaries, and building trust with key stakeholders. These skills, alongside technical expertise, are cornerstones of effective emergency response as they foster collaboration and trust.
The courses also help participants to deepen and broaden their leadership strengths and identities to enable them to make decisions based on the best evidence available and to take action for better health for all. Overall, the training is based on principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion to ensure that communities and the people within them remain central to the response focus.
Positive momentum in GOARN
On 26–30 May, the CC at RKI invited public health leaders and experienced mentors from multiple WHO regions to share personal experiences and challenges with colleagues and reflect on lessons learned from responding to recent disease outbreaks. This course in Amman, Jordan, which was the second in a series of face-to face leadership courses, was co-hosted by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean.
Hands-on, interactive engagement is a powerful means of ensuring growth across multiple regions. The CC at RKI proactively addresses emergent health-related events. It supports activities by the GOARN Operational Support Team, including the development and implementation of the GOARN training programme, which focuses on international outbreak response activities.
“WHO benefits greatly from the support of reliable CCs such as the Information Centre for International Health Protection. This partnership has enabled us to advance GOARN’s objectives, using their technical assistance to develop evidence-based guidance, as well as exchange knowledge and disseminate information. We look forward to continuing this fruitful collaboration in the future,” said Donna Zilstorff, WHO Regional Office for Europe.
About the CC
The CC – the Information Centre for International Health Protection (INIG/ZIG 1) at the RKI – supports WHO across all regions, focusing on emergency and humanitarian action, infection control and health promotion and education. Based in Berlin, Germany, the Centre serves as a central point for rapidly detecting and responding to potential and acute health emergencies, assessing and communicating risks, and leveraging relevant national and international capacities to act. The collaboration with the Centre, redesignated as a CC in March 2023, will continue until 2027.