Health capacity to be evaluated
The International Health Regulations, adopted by the World Health Organization in 2005, is an effective agreement aimed at strengthening the comprehensive capacity of member states to prevent the spread of infectious diseases across borders and to detect and respond to outbreaks. According to this agreement, the international joint team is going to work in Mongolia for the second time on November 17-24. The joint cross-assessment team included experts from the WHO, the UN, the FAO, relevant officials, and international observers from Ghana, Japan, Moldova, South Korea, Spain, and the USA. They are working in the National Center for Communicable Diseases, the National Center for Public Health, the Ulaanbaatar Health Department, the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, the National Research Center for Zoonotic Disease, the National Emergency Management Agency, the General Department of Veterinary Medicine, and Dundgovi Province.
The Western Pacific region of WHO includes 37 countries. China has the largest population of 1.4 billion, while Niue has the smallest population of 11,000. Among the 37 countries in the region, Mongolia is going to re-evaluate its basic capacity of the International Health Regulations. For Mongolia, an external joint assessment of the basic capacity to implement the rules was conducted in 2017, and a request for a second assessment was sent to WHO in April of this year. Also, a working group was formed in August, an action plan was drawn up, and its assessment was carried out in September.
Implementing core international health capabilities is not just a health issue, but a multidisciplinary issue, including crisis management, logistics, border crossings, and chemical and radiation safety. In 2017, Mongolia organized a joint external evaluation of the implementation of the basic capacity of the rule and implemented 57 recommendations from the evaluation team to ensure its readiness for public health emergency response measures. Therefore, this external evaluation will evaluate whether the previous recommendations have been implemented or not.