Emergencies

WHO is committed to saving lives and protecting health in times of crisis – whether caused by outbreaks, conflicts or disasters.

The WHO Health Emergencies Programme harnesses the expertise and resources of the three levels of WHO – country offices, regional offices and headquarters – to help Member States build the capacities required to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from all hazards that create health emergencies. When national capacities are overwhelmed, WHO works alongside ministries of health and partners to lead and coordinate the international health response.

Following the deliberations by the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2016, the Director General, Deputy Director-General and Regional Directors of WHO expressed their utmost commitment to reform the health emergencies work of WHO in a comprehensive way through the establishment of one single Programme; with one workforce, one budget, one set of rules and processes and one clear line of authority and an independent mechanism of assessment and monitoring of the performance of the Organization in this work portfolio covering emergencies due to all hazards.

As part of this reform member states were prioritized for support based on hazard, vulnerability and capacities. Member states facing major acute or prolonged crisis are at the highest priority level. Nepal was graded by the WHE Programme as one of the two countries in the South East Asia Region at the next level of priority. Subsequently, the Emergencies and Humanitarian Actions Unit at WHO Country Office for Nepal was renamed as the WHE Programme with mandate to support the member state6 for health sector emergency preparedness and response readiness for all hazards, natural – geophysical, climatological and biological - and man-made – accidents, chemical radiological etc. Additional and related areas such as Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) surveillance and food safety are also dealt with by this unit. The programme has been supporting the member state through both normative work and implementation / operations support at the field level.