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Health emergencies

Keeping people safe and protecting the vulnerable

Our mission is to save lives and protect livelihoods by supporting the health sector in Jordan to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond and recover from health emergencies.

Who we are

The Health Emergencies Programme of the WHO country office supports the Ministry of Health and other partners within the health sector in Jordan to enhance preparedness, readiness, and response towards public health emergencies under a One Health approach. The programme works with humanitarian partners to increase the resilience of vulnerable populations, such as refugees and migrants.

What we do

In collaboration with the Ministry of Health and health sector partners we ensure that people living in Jordan are protected from health emergencies. Our main areas of work include:

Support public health functions of the health system during emergencies

We strengthen the health system so it can manage public health emergencies. WHO conducts public health risk assessments, supports the development of national emergency preparedness and response plans, procures supplies for laboratories, trains the health workforce, co-leads the Refugees Health Sector Working Group, and are part of the United Nations Migration Network in Jordan to streamline efforts in mitigating vulnerability of refugees and migrants to public health threats.

Prevent and mitigate the impact of public health emergencies

We support authorities with the monitoring of health threats and strengthen capacities in early detection, verification, and response. We also support the national laboratory network in detecting pathogens quickly and efficiently to guide an appropriate public health response.

Build core capacities under the International Health Regulations (IHR 2005)

We strengthen core capacities required under the IHR (2005) and support implementation of the national action plan for health security across the human-animal interface, following the One Health approach.

Our impact

  • Towards enhancing readiness to respond to cholera outbreak, WHO Jordan supported a joint multisectoral risk assessment which informed activities such as case management capacity building for health care workers, laboratory supply and training support, risk communication and community engagement and WASH.
  • A memorandum of understanding, facilitated by WHO, was signed by Ministry of Health and Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen collaboration surveillance and data sharing in line with the One Health approach.
  • High-level guidance and support to the health sector during the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated an all-society approach, which led to the early decision to grant access to vaccination to all individuals in Jordan, irrespective of nationality and legal status.
  • Research activities conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic guided policy-making and informed capacity-building activities in areas like infection prevention and control (IPC).
  • Ensuring the continuity of essential health services.

What we have achieved

  • Development and implementation of National Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans for diseases like cholera and monkeypox.
  • A full-scale simulation exercise was conducted to test the functioning of the electronic surveillance system, laboratory capacities and rapid response teams at the human-animal interface
  • Implementation and documentation of research activities conducted within the Emergency Programme, such as COVID-19 sero-epidemiological studies and IPC - health care workers - case control study
  • Coordinated at country level the first WHO global school on refugee and migrant health.

What is next

The WHO country office will continue to work with all partners in the health sector to support the following activities:

  • Establishment of the national emergency medical teams programme
  • Implement the National Action Plan for Health Security under a One Health approach
  • Conduct the refugee and migrant health system assessment and develop a roadmap with activities to facilitate sustainable access to quality health care in line with universal health coverage
  • Build additional laboratory capacity, including genome sequencing and surveillance
  • Advance the public health emergency research agenda, including the COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness study

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