In 2020 and 2021, Member States, with technical and operational support from WHO, worked tirelessly to rapidly detect and effectively respond to acute and protracted health emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an environment that continues to pose significant operational and political challenges; however, the pandemic also brought important recognition of, and investments in, strengthening of essential public health functions, from surveillance to a global health emergency supply chain. Through its leadership and technical functions, WHO worked with countries and partners to build, strengthen and integrate necessary public health capacities. These gains must be sustained and further leveraged, as timely, effective emergency response is key to managing and mitigating the impacts of health emergencies.

Essential surveillance activities such as detection, verification and risk assessment, including rapid field investigations, of potential public health events continued in the context of COVID-19, with hundreds of thousands of signals detected and almost 100 events assessed for risk during the 2-year period. Training and capacity-building, including through the OpenWHO learning platform, which offers more than 40 COVID-19-related courses in 15 languages, will ensure not only that countries are responding to the events of today but also that they are prepared for those of tomorrow. Communication and sharing of information, expert assessments and guidance throughout the life cycle of each health emergency in order to inform all audiences and enable them to act accordingly continued to be a high priority for WHO. WHO played a crucial role in detecting, assessing and sharing information about COVID-19 variants, which guided response measures and policy-making. Advancements in the fields of public health and collaborative intelligence will be accelerated by the new Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, which will equip countries with better data, tools and analytical capability, such as the rapidly expanding Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources system, which can guide public health practice and policy.

More than 87 acute health emergencies in 2020 and 2021 (see interactive map below) required multinational and multisectoral coordination. WHO supported the coordination of health emergency responses by establishing incident management structures in line with its Emergency Response Framework, through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee, as lead agency of the Global Health Cluster and as custodian of the International Health Regulations (2005). The mechanisms, tools and systems coordinated by WHO were scaled up and adapted to meet the needs of countries facing COVID-19 and many other health emergencies. As a first responder and provider of last resort, WHO’s support and leadership guide and enable countries and communities to respond to health emergencies. In 2020 and 2021, the support included implementation of strategic response plans, provision of essential commodities to countries through the global health emergency supply chain, rapid release of financing via the contingency fund for emergencies and deployment of experts as part of the global health emergency workforce.

Protecting people living in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings from health emergencies and ensuring the maintenance and strengthening of essential health services and systems in 2020 and 2021 were more crucial and more challenging than ever. Similarly, responses to acute emergencies in the context of COVID-19 and complex humanitarian crises, such as cholera in north-east Nigeria, compelled countries, WHO and partners to stretch their resources and sometimes led to enhanced collaboration and innovative ways of working. WHO played a catalytical role in ensuring that humanitarian response plans included a strong focus on the health sector; coordinating the health sector response and partners; producing and adapting technical guidance for fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings, including on COVID-19 and mental health and psychosocial responses to health emergencies; and implementing the three pillars of the Attacks on Health Care initiative. Joint action and stronger collaboration were necessary to support the health needs of people living in fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable settings with shrinking resources and increasing needs.

Member States, WHO and partners have an unmissable opportunity to address deficiencies and build on any gains made in the responses to COVID-19 and concurrent health emergencies. The momentum must be maintained and capacities enhanced to ensure that each country and the world are collectively ready to detect and respond to every public health emergency.