Joint external evaluation of IHR core capacities of Nepal

Overview

The Joint external evaluation (JEE) team would like to express its appreciation to Nepal for volunteering for a JEE, and for being only the second country in the world to complete a JEE using the third edition of the JEE tool (and the 118th overall). This revised third edition of the tool incorporates lessons of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and other public health emergencies. Nepal’s broad and consistent efforts to prepare for emergencies and respond to them as effectively as possible clearly facilitated its whole-of-government response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The unprecedented nature, magnitude and wide societal impact of the pandemic have led to a great deal of improvisation and innovation across the country. As a result, emergency risk management stakeholders in Nepal have been understandably keen to combine the many lessons of the pandemic response – consolidated through intra action reviews – with work to address gaps in IHR core capacities identified through the JEE. Nepal intended to undergo the JEE several years ago, but constraints posed by the recovery from the Nepal Earthquake in 2015, the transition to a federated state and then the COVID-19 pandemic meant that this intent could only be realised in late 2022. The JEE team sincerely appreciates Nepal’s willingness to volunteer for a JEE, the efforts of the country to meet the requirements of the process, and the warm hospitality offered to the team. All countries that make the effort to undergo the JEE process should be commended for doing so, and for the transparency they have shown in service of strengthening global health security.