Make urban areas resilient to emergencies and disasters: locate hospitals in safe areas, strengthen health centres to withstand known dangers, prepare community emergency response, improve disease surveillance.
Supporting national implementation of International Health Regulations
The International Health Regulations (2005) provide an international legal and operational framework for WHO Member States to better protect the health of their populations.
WHO supports Member States in their efforts to implement the IHR into national legislation and ensures they have the core capacities for surveillance, preparedness and response towards all public health threats.
Implementation of IHR is a long-term process that calls for countries to:
- develop and strengthen specific national public health capacities;
- identify priority areas for action;
- develop national IHR implementation plans;
- maintain these capacities and continue to build and strengthen them as needed over time.
WHO develops guidance and toolkits that provides approaches and examples of the IHR implementation around the world. Through WHO’s regional offices, the Organization also helps countries report their IHR capacities to the World Health Assembly each year, which is monitored in the Global Health Observatory.
WHO also supports a network of National IHR Focal Points, through training and capacity building activities; learning activities can be accessed through the Health Security Learning Platform. National IHR Focal Points are national offices or centres (not individual people) that are accessible at all times for IHR-related communications with WHO and relevant sectors within the country.