Country Health Emergency Preparedness and IHR

The Strategic Action Framework for Strengthening Community Engagement and Resilience to Health Emergencies in the WHO South-East Asia Region (2025–2029) has been developed through multiple rounds of consultation with technical experts from Member States of the South-East (SE) Asia Region. In addition, and comprehensive literature reviews were conducted of reports, publications, research papers, regional and global guidance on health security and recommendations from the experience of managing the COVID 19 pandemic and other recent emergencies.

The wide range of impacts of health emergencies necessitate a whole-of-society approach and multisectoral engagement to mitigate and manage them. Lessons learnt from the COVID 19 pandemic, identified the critical role of communities in all stages of the emergency management cycle.

The Regional Strategic Roadmap on health security and health system resilience for emergencies 2023–2027 was developed under the overall guidance of the Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, by WHO Regional Office staff. Inputs from literature reviews, Member States’ self-assessments and joint external evaluations of IHR (2005) core capacities, intra-action reviews of COVID-19 response at country and regional levels, and reports of regional consultations, were used in its preparation. Experts and partners provided valuable guidance on the lessons learnt from the COVID-19 response. The Health Emergencies Department of the Regional Office expresses its gratitude to all individuals who actively participated in, helped organize content and contributed to the formulation of the Roadmap.