Kadoma – From November 26-29, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Little one Care (MoHCC) in Zimbabwe convened a State Party Self-Assessment Annual Reporting workshop. Supported by the World Health Organization (WHO), this workshop was designed to evaluate Zimbabwe’s adherence to the International Health Regulations (IHR-2005) and pinpoint areas for enhancement. The match supplied a platform for reporting on and reviewing the implementation of the IHR (2005), highlighting the country’s progress in detecting and responding to public health emergencies.
The match introduced collectively key stakeholders, including government officials, public health specialists, and representatives from various sectors, to talk about and toughen Zimbabwe’s capacity to forestall, detect, and acknowledge to public health emergencies. This demonstrates the country’s commitment to fulfilling its obligations below the International Health Regulations (2005) and strengthening global health safety.
“This train helps us evaluate our latest capabilities and establish areas for enchancment in responding to various public health emergencies,” said Dr Wenceslaus Nyamayaro, MoHCC Chief Director for Public Health.
The International Health Regulations (IHR) are a legally binding framework established by WHO to forestall, detect, and acknowledge to public health emergencies of international area.
For the duration of the workshop, participants engaged in discussions, shared experiences, and exchanged handiest practices related to the IHR’s implementation. Regardless of funding challenges, Zimbabwe has made progress in surveillance, threat communication, and laboratory capacity products and services. Outbreak detection and reporting have improved, leading to better information dissemination, which is crucial at some level of outbreaks. Additionally, the country has tough leadership from IHR National Focal Features. In 2023, Zimbabwe scoring was at 66%, which is increased than the regional average of 50% and global average of 63% and is one among the countries that has religiously carried out the assessment.
WHO is supporting Zimbabwe by strengthening its surveillance machine, offering technical guidance and operational assist for threat assessment, and making toddle ongoing threat communication and neighborhood engagement. The organization is also assisting with establishing or accessing laboratory products and services, offering relevant training, and conducting intra-action (IAR) and after-action critiques (AAR) to establish handiest practices, gaps, and classes learned. After the file writing course of, the file can be submitted to the IHR secretariat to make contributions to the IHR (2005) file, which is able to be introduced to Ministers of Health at some level of the World Health Assembly in 2025.
“While challenges remain, the country’s commitment to enforcing the IHR is commendable. WHO will proceed to assist Zimbabwe in strengthening its health systems and safeguarding the health of its population,” said Dr Desta Tiruneh, WHO Representative to Zimbabwe.
