Civil-Military collaboration for health emergency preparedness

This project is situated in the broad framework ofWHO’s commitment to strengthen multisectoral coordination for health emergency preparedness by engaging non-traditional health stakeholders, such as civil-military health stakeholders (1) .

The goals is civil-military collaboration, not in the sense of collaborations during crises, but aiming at civil-military health collaboration for capacity building for health emergency preparedness in advance of a crisis. Establishing and formalizing relationships between the military health and civil sectors prior to an emergency will strengthen the country’s health emergency preparedness.

The first contacts between WHO and ICMM concerning civil-military health collaboration have been established in 2017 in Jakarta.
In the ‘Jakarta Call for Action’ several appeals were launched :

  • don’t wait for a crisis to collaborate : build trust between the sectors before emergencies strike;
  • define roles and responsibilities through national action plans for health security;
  • plan, schedule joint preparedness exercises & trainings

During the ICMM Extraordinary General Assembly of 2021, Mr Ludy Suryantoro, Head of Unit Multisectoral Engagement for Health Security of the WHO, presented the WHO civil-military health collaboration framework. The aim is to achieve cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination between public health stakeholders and military actors.

    Useful documents that provide further insight into this matter are:

     
     

    Currently, there is a partnership between WHO, Chatham House and Johns Hopkins University on civil-military health collaboration. ICMM was asked to help support this initiative and has committed to do so.

    The following activities are planned for the near future:

    • a Regional WHO Meeting in each of the six WHO regions. The objectives of these meetings are: explore the implementation of the WHO National civil–military health collaboration framework for strengthening health emergency preparedness (NCF) and review and provide input to the Civil-Military Resource Mapping Tool and the Compendium of Case Studies;
    • a High Level Round Table during world and regional activities and congresses of the ICMM.

    1. WHA Session 8 Feb 2020 – WHO Resolution “ Strengthening preparedness for health emergencies: implementation of the International Health Regulations (2005)”