Capacity-building needed for emergency preparedness, response and recovery in the Region

Ministers of health of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region have emphasized the need for Member States, with the technical support of WHO, to increase efforts to develop their emergency preparedness and response plans to ensure that they are better prepared to handle emergencies and disasters.

At the fifty-seventh session of the Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean meeting in Cairo, Egypt, ministers of health endorsed a new resolution, which aims to reduce the health consequences of regional emergencies, such as the recent flood in Pakistan and conflict in Yemen. Considering protracted emergencies in the Region, as well as the increased frequency of new events, the need to focus on capacity-building within the health sector to build resilient health systems in order to reduce avoidable deaths was highlighted.

Concern was expressed over the rising impact of disasters on health and health facilities, referring to the flood in Pakistan as one example of the importance of ensuring that health -- and the broader community – have the capacity and resilience to respond to the impacts of conflict, natural disasters and other humanitarian crises. Regional Committee members cited the profound humanitarian consequences of the flood, with reports estimating that about 20 million people had been displaced and substantial damage inflicted upon the country’s critical health infrastructure and other essential services. Alarm was also expressed over the public health situation and the limited access to health services of the populations of the occupied Palestinian territory and the Golan Heights.

By institutionalizing emergency preparedness, response and recovery programmes, countries will strengthen their overall capacity and capability to efficiently manage all types of emergencies. The ministers of health acknowledged that the integration of disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness in capacity-building, with a focus on an All Hazard and multisectoral approach, was needed to reduce the impact of disasters.

The approved action plan calls on all countries to:

• contribute to the regional emergency solidarity fund and to the regional hub for logistics and supply management to enable rapid response in emergencies;

• integrate health in all national emergency management and disaster risk reduction programmes and regularly review the national health emergency management plan;

• integrate emergency preparedness and risk reduction in all health development programmes;

• identify national resources that can be called upon during emergencies.

Download the Emergency and Humanitarian Action resolution >>