The world needs ready to test reference laboratories and
functional public health laboratory networks to respond to health emergencies,
ensuring that policies, infrastructure, workforce and operations of the
laboratory sector are in place and sustainable. Historically, initiatives to
build these capacities have sometimes lacked focus, with no clear goal in terms
of a laboratory’s preparedness or readiness level. For this reason, WHO
is proposing to establish a Laboratory Recognition Programme for pathogens of
epidemic and pandemic potential which will drive and unify capacity building
efforts by national authorities, WHO and partners.
As a
first step in establishing this programme, the Public Health Laboratory
Strengthening Unit of the Lyon Office convened key public health laboratory
stakeholders to present and discuss the proposed WHO laboratory recognition
programme and its key components. Activities of the consultation included
presentations on the lessons learnt from existing laboratory designation,
certification, accreditation, verification or recognition programmes and their
impact on laboratory capacity building. Posters were shared by representatives
from reference laboratories from several country contexts showing best-practices
and highlighting the main challenges of public health laboratory systems. Panel
discussions were also held with global funding and laboratory capacity building
partners on the identified gaps in the laboratory capacity building global
architecture.
On the second day of the consultation,
participants took a deep dive into each the proposed components of the WHO laboratory
recognition programme in world-café style workshops where individuals were able
to share ideas and views on the proposed key elements of the programme which
included the assessment standards, the programme implementation model, a
monitoring and evaluation framework, and the overarching programme mission,
vision and goals.
The next steps will be for WHO to develop, based on the feedback of the consultation and a review of existing evidence on recognition programmes, a final draft of the guidelines, standards and tools which could be used to implement the programme and provide them to global stakeholders for final review. It is hoped that parts of the programme components will be tested by laboratories in WHO collaborating centers and in selected beneficiary countries in late 2023 and early 2024 before the final laboratory recognition programme implementation framework will be finalized and rolled out globally.
The global consultation and development of the standards and tools for the WHO laboratory recognition programme is made possible through the financial support of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe (NDICI – Global Europe) under the umbrella of the European Union CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative.