Overview
The WHO Acute Care Action Network (ACAN) is a global alliance of key stakeholders committed to saving millions of lives by advancing acute care through collaboration to meet the mandate of WHA 76.2 resolution. ACAN was established with a strategic collaboration and support from the Laerdal Foundation and American Heart Association.
ACAN participant organizations work across primary, emergency, critical and operative care and have a shared objective of strengthening acute care delivery in low- and middle-income countries through dissemination, implementation and evaluation of WHO tools and resources. Taking a strategic approach to integration across the continuum of care, allows countries to effectively address key high burden conditions such as injury, sepsis, complication of childbirth (maternal and neonatal) and acute exacerbations of NCDs.
ACAN was first convened in 2024 to identify strategic actions around advocacy, funding, and sustainable, scalable implementation of WHO’s resources for acute care strengthening.
The operational priorities for ACAN for 2025 – 2026 are:
- Strengthening acute care services: Expand implementation of WHO acute care resources
- Empowering communities: Implement CFAR programs and study care-seeking behaviour
- Improving quality: Support clinical quality improvement
- Enhancing access: Prioritize & assign acute care services to each level of the health system
- Informing action: Assess and plan at system, pathway and delivery level.
In 2025-2026, ACAN's working groups are focusing on:
- Expanding implementation of WHO’s acute care tools and resources
- Empowering communities as users and providers of acute care
- Facility-based clinical quality improvement.
- Coordinated advocacy and resource mobilization.
ACAN now includes almost 70 organizations across primary, emergency, critical, and operative care, reflecting its expanding global commitment to enhancing acute care delivery where it is needed most.
The network will regularly convene participant organizations to coordinate implementation and impact evaluation activities, share lessons learned and support advocacy across the acute care continuum. ACAN will maintain a small-scale grant distribution mechanism to support efforts of champions in low-income countries.
Become an ACAN participant organization
If your organization is interested in coordination and amplification of acute care services, please click the link below.
WHO Chief Nursing Office BEC 25x25 campaign and ACAN
Announced by the WHO Director General, the Office of the Chief Nurse has launched a campaign to amplify WHO Basic Emergency Care (BEC) training to nurses around the world by initiating or expanding efforts in 25 countries in 2024-25.
BEC 25 x 25 has been selected as a core WHO 75th anniversary campaign and is central to the mandate of WHA Resolution 76.2 on integrated emergency, critical and operative care. As such, the campaign is an early priority for ACAN and the associated ECO Global Strategy and Action Plan called for at Executive Board 154.