The World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched a Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC) strategy, a shared vision to build an emergency-ready and resilient health workforce in every country by 2030.

The strategy, according to WHO, aims to translate global commitments under the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the Pandemic Agreement into practical national capacities by strengthening emergency health workforces and improving coordination, interoperability and surge response mechanisms.

It also sets a clear benchmark, ensuring that 10 per cent of the health workforce in every country is organised, trained, exercised and connected to respond to emergencies by 2030.

Global leaders, member-states and partners, at the launch, which took place on the sidelines of the 79th World Health Assembly, co-hosted by Ethiopia, Germany and Brazil and supported by the Gates Foundation and the Institute of Philanthropy, highlighted the urgent need to invest in health emergency preparedness and strengthen coordination across countries and regions, given the increasingly complex nature of health emergencies.

In a keynote, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr Hanan Balkhy, emphasised that preparedness must become a sustained national capability rather than a reactive effort mobilised during crises.

Balkhy noted that health emergencies do not respect borders, and that preparedness cannot depend on last-minute mobilisation, as it requires trusted leadership, nationally owned systems, coordinated workforces, and collaboration that moves faster than crises themselves.

She stated that the strategy offers countries a practical pathway to strengthen readiness by building nationally organised emergency workforces connected across borders through solidarity, shared expertise and coordinated action.
MEANWHILE, a new report by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB) has warned that the world is on the edge of even greater pandemic damage as the pandemic continues to rise faster than global investments in preparedness.

The board stated that the trend could worsen unless three priority actions identified for governments and international partners are urgently implemented, which include establishing a permanent, independent monitoring system for pandemic risk, advancing equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments through a pandemic agreement, and securing sustainable financing for preparedness and emergency response.

The report, entitled ‘A World on the Edge: Priorities for a Pandemic-Resilient Future’, was released yesterday in Geneva and issued under the co-convenorship of the WHO and the World Bank Group, ahead of the 79th World Health Assembly.