The World Health Organization has drawn up a roadmap to help it improve its response to future pandemics and disease outbreaks. Building on the lessons learned from the Africa Ebola outbreak the roadmap “is predicated on three overarching pillars : country preparedness; organizational readiness, response and early recovery; and identification and mitigation of high threat pathogens.”
To address these pillars, the Roadmap is divided into six outputs:
1. A unified WHO Platform for outbreaks and emergencies with health and humanitarian consequences that maintains organizational readiness, responds in a predictable, capable, dependable, adaptable and accountable manner at country level, and partners with all stakeholders in support of governments in preparedness, response and early recovery.
2. A global health emergency workforce, to be effectively deployed in support of countries, comprising national responders; international responders from networks and partnerships; responders from UN agencies, funds and programmes; and WHO standing and surge capacity.
3. Priority IHR core capacities developed at country-level as an integral part of resilient health systems to enable the rapid detection and effective response to disease outbreaks and other hazards, as well as providing people-centred health services based on primary health care.
4. Improved functioning, transparency, effectiveness and efficiency of the IHR (2005).
5. A framework for R&D preparedness and for enabling R&D during outbreaks or emergencies.
6. Adequate international financing for pandemics and other health emergencies, including the WHO Contingency Fund for Emergencies and a pandemic emergency financing facility (PEF) as proposed by the World Bank.
Read the WHO roadmap document (PDF).
