Data related to epidemic and pandemic preparedness, such as disease surveillance, health system, and response capacity data, should be publicly available so that officials within and beyond country borders understand the nature and magnitude of the threat and the tools available to contain it. Data transparency allows for better decision…
By regularly releasing data on countries’ health security capacities, the GHS Index aims to generate additional political will for resources to fill identified gaps. By design, the GHS Index is meant to bolster the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) process, which is a WHO led independent, collaborative, and multi-sectoral assessment of…
Since the release of the 2019 GHS Index, New Zealand has made improvements in detection and reporting and compliance with international norms, which led to it jumping up 12 positions in rank. In particular, New Zealand showed increased capacity across laboratory system strength and quality, supply chains, and epidemiological…
Preparedness, capacity, and capability are important concepts to the GHS Index. The UN and WHO define preparedness as the ability of governments, professional response organizations, communities, and individuals to anticipate, detect, and respond effectively to, and recover from, the impact of likely, imminent, or current health emergencies, hazards, events, or…
With more reported cases and more deaths than any other country, the United States’ poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world. As documented by the 2019 GHS Index, the United States had more global health security capacities in place to prevent and respond to epidemics and pandemics than…
COVID-19 has demonstrated the inadequacy of current global capacities to help countries respond to pandemics. The pervasive and protracted nature of pandemics distinguishes them from epidemics, which are more limited in geographic scope. In an epidemic, unaffected nations may be able to contribute funds, personnel, and other resources to assist…
Although other frameworks exist for measuring public health capacities, the GHS Index uniquely offers a broad assessment of preparedness gaps in all 195 States Parties to the International Health Regulations (IHR[2005]), the global treaty governing country requirements to mitigate cross-border health threats. The GHS Index is built upon three fundamental…
A leading biochemist and top health advisor to New Zealand’s government says the 2019 Global Health Security (GHS) Index was key to the country’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Siouxsie Wiles, a renowned infectious disease expert and advisor to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, told the Winnipeg Free Press that the report…
On May 12th, the Initiative for Global Security, the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative collaborated for a virtual discussion about using the GHS Index as a decision-making tool for Latin American audiences. The webinar, which was broadcast live in English, Spanish, and Portuguese,…
In preparation for the Fall 2021 launch of the second Global Health Security (GHS) Index, members of the GHS Index International Panel of Experts are reviewing the index framework, discussing indicator weighting strategies, and assessing how the 2019 GHS Index…