A global health security planning tool to improve implementation of the international health regulations

The International Health Regulations (IHR) is a legally binding international agreement designed to enhance national, regional and global public health security. Under the IHR, all member countries of the World Health Organization are committed to detecting, assessing, notifying and responding to Public Health Emergencies of International Concern. Many countries, however, still lack essential capacities and have requested additional time from WHO to fully comply with the IHR requirements. A variety of U.S Government agencies provide IHR-related assistance to other countries as part of their traditional humanitarian assistance and public health programs. There is a growing awareness among policy experts that global IHR implementation also contributes to threat reduction and security interests. An interagency working group hosted by the National Security Council developed recommendations in a document Promoting Global Health Security: Guidance and Principles for U.S. Government Departments and Agencies to Strengthen International Health Regulation Core Capacities Internationally. Based on these recommendations and other international agreements, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed a global health security planning framework to facilitate the process by which CDC in-country teams assist partner countries in meeting their requirements for IHR. This presentation will describe: 1) the design of the planning framework; 2) the key informant methodology used in piloting the tool in Kazakhstan, Kenya, Tanzania, Georgia and Uganda; 3) the gaps in IHR capacities identified by the planning tool; 4) examples of how the results were used to increase awareness, mobilize threat reduction resources and expand capacity building cooperation for IHR implementation.