Indicator 3.d.1 International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity and health emergency preparedness

Indicator 3.d.1: International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity and health emergency preparedness

Target 3.d: Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks

Country Capacity Assessment and Planning Group (CAP)

Department of Health Security Preparedness (HSP)

WHO Health Emergency Programme

The revised International Health Regulations (IHR) were adopted in 2005 and entered into force in 2007. Under the IHR, States Parties are obliged to develop and maintain minimum core capacities for surveillance and response, including at points of entry, to detect, assess, notify, and respond to any potential public health events of international concern.

Article 54 of the IHR states, "States Parties and the Director-General shall report to the Health Assembly on the implementation of these Regulations as decided by the Health Assembly."

The IHR States Parties Self-assessment Annual Reporting tool captures the level of self-assessed national capacities. They are essential public health capacities that States Parties are required to put in place throughout their territories according to Articles 5 and 12 and Annex 1A of the IHR (2005) requirements.

Based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO published the revised second edition of the IHR State Parties Self-assessment Annual Reporting Tool in 2021 with new indicators related to gender equality in health emergencies, advocacy for IHR implementation, and community engagement, to name a few. The revisions are intended to improve the assessment of the IHR core capacities and the preparedness of States Parties for health emergencies. The indicator SDG 3.d.1 reflects the capacities State Parties of the International Health Regulations (2005) (IHR) had agreed and committed to developing.

Percentage

The data is collected annually from State Parties since 2010 and registered and available on the e-SPAR platform (https://extranet.who.int/e-spar). There are 196 States Parties that are signatory to the International Health Regulations and are mandated to reporting annually to the WHO to report to the World Health Assembly. The number of reports received has increased annually. By 2021, WHO received SPAR data from 184 (out of 196) Member States, reflecting 94% of submissions. In 2022, SPAR submission reached 95% and in 2023, SPAR submission rate reached 99%,the highest number for a SPAR reporting cycle since 2010.

All data is collected from 196 States Parties and disseminated by WHO.

1) it is based on a self-assessment and reporting by the State Party

2) There are three datasets based on the different tools to collect data for SPAR. For the period 2010 to 2017, the questionnaire, known as the IHR monitoring questionnaire, is divided into thirteen sections, one for each of the eight core capacities, PoE and four hazards and information on the status of implementation for each capacity. The IHR monitoring questionnaire ( 2010 to 2017) was replaced by the IHR State Parties Self-Assessment Tool – SPAR, published in July 2018 also known as SPAR 1st edition. The States Parties used the SPAR first edition during the 2018 – 2020 SPAR reporting cycle. The current questionnaire replaced the SPAR 1st edition and was used by the States Parties from 2021 up to present (2024). Under each capacity, the indicators were either retained, replaced or added. Historical trends and data analysis of scores for similar capacity titles should be taken with caution.

All data are from the questionnaires submitted by States Parties annually.

For each of the 15 capacities, one to five indicators are used to measure implementation status. For each indicator, the reporting State Party is asked to select which of the five levels best describes the State Party's current status. To move to the next level, all capacities described in previous levels should be in place for each indicator. The score of each indicator level is classified as a percentage of performance along the "1 to 5" scale. e.g. for a country selecting level 3 for indicator 2.1, the indicator level is expressed as: 3/5*100=60%

CAPACITY LEVEL

The level of capacity is expressed as the average of all indicators. e.g. for a country selecting level 3 for indicator 2.1 and level 4 for indicator 2.2. The indicator level for 2.1 is expressed as 3/5*100=60%, the indicator level for 2.2 will be expressed as 4/5*100=80% and the capacity level for 2 will be expressed as (60+80)/2=70%

2024-05-24

World Health Organization (WHO)

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