National Action Plan for Health Security: enhancing health emergency preparedness

A NAPHS is a strategic plan or roadmap that strengthens a country's ability to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from health emergencies. It is typically developed by a country's Ministry of Health in collaboration with other government agencies and stakeholders, such as WHO and other United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector.

The WHO NAPHS outlines key goals or outcomes. It establishes long-term funding needs and supports advocacy for financing, both domestically and via partners. Based on One Health for all hazards, the 5-year roadmap adopts a whole-of-government approach and helps to maintain multisectoral alignment. Operational plans are then used to identify activities that can be implemented and tracked, and to ensure accountability. These shorter, 12-to-24-month plans allow for easier reprioritization, if necessary, as well as activity costing, and promote discussions with domestic and external donors.

The NAPHS process requires multisectoral coordination. Technical and project management capabilities are needed to drive the process effectively, as summarized below.

Implementing a NAPHS involves several key steps.

A NAPHS is often primarily informed by a Joint External Evaluation (JEE), which evaluates a country's capacity to detect, prevent, and respond to public health emergencies. However, when a JEE is not available, data from the most recent International Health Regulations States Parties Self-Assessment Annual Reporting can be used alongside other internal or external capacity assessments. Countries of the European Union (EU) may also utilize their assessment of prevention, preparedness and response planning as outlined in Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2371 on serious cross-border threats to health.

In settings with less external donor funding, for example, in most EU Member States, a NAPHS is uniquely placed to help to structure the country’s investment cases and integrate them into national planning and budgeting cycles to unlock domestic financing.

A NAPHS is an opportunity for financial and technical partners to provide crucial support in a synergistic manner. It fosters a collaborative environment that helps to avoid duplication of effort in areas where other partners are already engaged.

This approach optimizes resource allocation and bolsters the efficiency and effectiveness of health security initiatives, ensuring that any support is aligned with a country's health security priorities.

Ultimately, supporting the development of a NAPHS will bring a return on investment and maximum impact for the health of beneficiaries.

The NAPHS framework plays a key role in ensuring alignment between various technical teams within WHO.

These teams may include professionals specializing in areas such as epidemiology, laboratory services, and emergency preparedness and response.

The NAPHS framework also helps to unify capacity-building efforts in countries. It acts as a common reference point, ensuring that all health security-related projects supported by external partners are in harmony with WHO's strategic objectives.

This prevents duplication of effort while maximizing the impact of health security strengthening initiatives.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe is committed to supporting countries in their efforts to enhance health security through NAPHS.

1. Technical assistance: we offer guidance, technical expertise, and resources for supporting the development, implementation, and evaluation of NAPHS.
2. Training: access our online course, “National Action Plans for Health Security: Leveraging WHO's new integrated and holistic planning approach”, to gain a comprehensive understanding of NAPHS principles and practices. Further face-to-face training can be requested.
3. Collaboration and knowledge exchange: engage with our experts and regional networks to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange among countries.

To learn more, contact eurocme@who.int.