Following the devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization restructured the way it works in outbreaks and emergencies.
The reforms gave birth to WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, a structure that defines lines of authority as well as operational processes and activities required during an emergency or outbreak.
One part of this new program is WHO’s incident management system, which determines how the aid agency organizes and coordinates its work between its three levels of the organization, partners and countries needing assistance in their response.
The IMS is similarly structured across the three levels of WHO, to ensure critical functions such as leadership, communications and logistics are present regardless if the emergency or outbreak is at the national, regional or global level.
Devex spoke with Wynne Boelt, communications officer for WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, on the sidelines of the 70th World Health Assembly, to learn more. Watch the video above.
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About the author
Jenny Lei Ravelo@JennyLeiRavelo
Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila. She covers global health, with a particular focus on the World Health Organization, and other development and humanitarian aid trends in Asia Pacific. Prior to Devex, she wrote for ABS-CBN, one of the largest broadcasting networks in the Philippines, and was a copy editor for various international scientific journals. She received her journalism degree from the University of Santo Tomas.
