Technical Advisory Group (TAG) for Universal Health and Preparedness Review (UHPR)
The Universal Health and Preparedness Review (UHPR) is based on a voluntary mechanism of peer-to-peer review, led by Member States, to promote greater, more effective international cooperation by bringing nations and stakeholders together in a spirit of solidarity. The technical advisory group acts as an advisory body to WHO in this field.

About

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that no country was fully prepared to deal with a pandemic of such scale, speed, severity and impact. A new mechanism, the Universal Health and Preparedness Review (UHPR), has been proposed as means to increase accountability and transparency among Member States in gap identification and capacity building for better health emergency preparedness. The peer-review nature of the envisioned UHPR ensures that key issues identified will be acted upon at the highest political levels of government and that relevant recommendations will be followed up upon and monitored on regular basis.

To guide the technical basis for the UHPR, a global group of technical experts was convened to support WHO in the development process of the methodology in assessing preparedness status, including a set of common indicators to be used by all Member States undergoing the review process.

 

Functions

The functions of the UHPR technical advisory group is to provide expert inputs on the technical content of the UHPR, including draft processes for field testing, piloting, and ensure that it is evidence-based, logical and appropriate to measure the status of health emergency preparedness in countries.

 

Operations

Operations of the UHPR technical advisory group will be held through online consultations, email, virtual or in-person meetings. WHO will provide secretariat support to the group of experts. The UHPR technical advisory group shall normally meet at least once a month. However, WHO may convene additional meetings.  The UHPR technical advisory group meetings may be held virtually, via video or teleconference or in-person. Interim teleconferences may be required of the members.  The working language of the group will be English.

Background of TAG Members

The UHPR technical advisory group is multidisciplinary, with members who have a range of technical knowledge, skills and experience relevant to health emergency preparedness. Scientists, technical experts, healthcare professionals and policy makers with expertise in the following areas:

    • Peer-review mechanisms at the multilateral level
    • Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health systems and healthier populations and their contribution to preparedness
    • Pandemic preparedness and all-hazards risk management
    • International Health Regulations (IHR) and health security
    • Ethics, equity, human rights and gender in public health.

Sub-groups

The TAG established smaller working groups of their members to work on specific issues:

  •  Sub-group 1: Governance and process
  •  Sub-group 2: Technical Indicators and metrics
  •  Sub-group 3: Interaction and relationship with other mechanisms

Composition

Co-Chairs of the UHPR TAG:

Dr Anne-Catherine Viso

Director of the Scientific and International Affairs Department at Santé Publique France.

Dr Janneth Mghamba

Health Advisor, Commonwealth Secretariat

Rapporteur of the UHPR TAG:

Arthur Reingold

Professor and Head of the Division of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

Terms of Reference

Call for Experts

Contact

For any queries, please write to [email protected]

 

Members

Dr Amanda McClelland

Senior Vice President of Prevent Epidemics at Resolve to Save Lives, Vital Strategies

Dr Autilia Newton

MD, MPH, Diploma Specialist in Infectious Disease; Diploma in Tropical Medicine; Consultant Communicable Disease Control

Dr Nahid Bhadelia

Founding Director of Boston University (BU) Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases Policy and Research and an associate Director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL)

Clare Wenham

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - Associate Professor of Global Health Policy, Department of Health Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom

Mr Dicky Komar

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia

Mr Gianni Magazzeni

Former Assistant to the Director-General and Head of the UN Human Rights Program, Geneva

Dr Justin Koonin

Co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee

Professor Mahmudur Rahman

Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, and National Influenza Center, Bangladesh

Dr Mohammed Alkhaldi

McGill University, Swiss TPH, and Canadian University Dubai

Ms Mona M’Bikay

Swiss Government, UN agencies, Director of UPR Info

Professor Rakesh Kumar Srivastava

Former Director General of Health Services, India

Dr Robert Kwame deGraft Agyarko

Global Health and International Development Expert

Dr Seif Salem Al-Abri

Director General of Disease Surveillance and Control, MoH, Oman

Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu

MD, Public Health

Xiaoyun Liu

Professor in Health System Research, Deputy Director at Peking University China Center for Health Development Studies

Dr Zaza Tsereteli

MPH, Royal Tropical Medical Institute (KIT), Amsterdam-Netherlands

Dr Mohamed Moussif

Chief of Public Health, Mohammad V International Airport, and National Coordinator of the Points of Entry Program

Dr Carlos Navaro Colorado