Building resilience to disasters
Health systems play a crucial role in managing risks and reducing the health consequences of health emergencies and disasters. To build resilience within the health system and ensure access to care during emergencies, it is crucial to identify and manage all types of intersecting risks. Effective disaster risk management and resilience are crucial to mitigate impact and ensure continuity of essential health services.
To manage risks and promote resilience of the health system against both imminent and longer-term disaster and climate impacts, countries take a multisectoral, whole-of-society approach in accordance with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), the International Health Regulations (2005), and the Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APHSAF).
In the Western Pacific Region, ministries of health and stakeholders are increasing resilience through:
- risk profiling exercises
- multisectoral risk-based planning and coordination
- increasing health infrastructure and health facility preparedness and resilience
- risk-informed anticipatory actions at the national, subnational and community-level
