Strengthening the IHR Through a One Health Approach

Background

Strengthening key IHR (2005) core capacities—such as zoonotic disease control, antimicrobial resistance, and food safety— requires input from multiple sectors. All four components of the IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF) —annual reporting, joint external evaluation, simulation exercises, and after-action reviews—depend on cross-sectoral collaboration. To support this, WHO provides tools that facilitate the integration of multisectoral perspectives in these processes.

Available tools

Depiction of handbook cover
One Health in the SPAR
Annual Reporting under IHR (2005) is mandatory and evaluates 13 core capacities, many of which require input from multiple sectors, particularly the animal health sector. To support this, WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) developed a handbook to help countries assess capacities where veterinary services contribute to IHR (2005) implementation. The handbook aligns the IHR Annual Reporting Tool with the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway, a widely used framework for evaluating national veterinary services. By leveraging PVS Pathway mission results, this handbook can streamline and enhance the annual reporting process.
New JEE
One Health in the JEE
The Joint External Evaluation (JEE) is a voluntary, collaborative, and multidisciplinary process through which WHO supports countries in assessing their capacities across 19 technical areas. To aid in this assessment, WHO and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) developed a handbook that focuses on areas where veterinary services contribute to IHR (2005) implementation. This resource highlights the complementarities between the JEE Tool and the Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) Pathway, a well-established framework used by national veterinary services to evaluate and enhance their performance.
Simex
One Health in Simulation Exercises
Simulation exercises provide a structured approach to developing and testing the functional capabilities of emergency systems and procedures in response to simulated public health emergencies. Engaging multiple sectors and stakeholders in these exercises is crucial for effective outbreak response, particularly for zoonotic diseases. Multisectoral collaboration is often a key focus of simulation exercises.
6
One Health in After Action Reviews
An After-Action Review (AAR) is a qualitative assessment of actions taken in response to a public health event. The process involves a structured discussion among stakeholders to systematically evaluate preparedness, actual response actions, successes, shortcomings, underlying factors, and opportunities for improvement. A significant portion of AAR focus on health events at the human-animal-environment interface, for which multisectoral collaboration is a key aspect of the discussion.