International Health Regulations (IHR): Joint External Evaluation (JEE): Roster of Experts Process and Overview
Overview
The purpose of this guidance document is to provide the host country with all the necessary information for undergoing a voluntary Joint External Evaluation (JEE) for the implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) capacities. This document encompasses an overview of the JEE process; roles and responsibilities of stakeholders; pre-evaluation activities; evaluation process and management; and post-evaluation activities.
The revised 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, in order to detect, assess, notify, and respond to any potential public health event of international concern. These capacities were to be developed by June 2012, with provision for two extensions up to June of 2016. In accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 54 of the IHR, countries must report on IHR implementation to the World Health Assembly (WHA) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board.
At the Sixty-eighth WHA in 2015, the IHR Review Committee on Second Extensions for Establishing National Public Health Capacities and on IHR (2005) Implementation1 recommended “options to move from exclusive self-evaluation, to approaches that combine self-evaluation, peer review and voluntary external evaluations involving a combination of domestic and independent experts”. The WHO IHR Monitoring and Evaluation Framework was developed to address this recommendation. The Framework consists of four components; one mandatory, Annual Reporting; and three voluntary, exercises, afteraction reviews and JEEs.
Annual reporting, periodic JEEs and implementing after-action reviews and exercises, along with corresponding efforts for strengthening animal health and other sectors, are recommended as part of an ongoing capacity development, evaluation and monitoring process for IHR (2005) implementation. Although evaluation of progress in implementation is an essential step to improving a country’s ability to protect the health of its people, it is not an end in itself; rather, it is the start of a process of continuous improvement and review. The JEE, therefore, is one step of this process which should include both broader and longer term planning and programming.
