Global health security · IHR · AMR
Health security after COVID-19: making IHR and AMR plans operational
Plans are in place; the harder part is execution. A practical sequence for turning health security and antimicrobial resistance plans into budgets, owners and results.
Avicenna Consulting International · · 2 min read
Since COVID-19, most countries have strengthened their paper defences. They have assessed their capacities against the International Health Regulations (2005), often through a Joint External Evaluation, and they have national action plans for health security and for antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The harder question is whether those plans are being carried out.
Why plans stall
The same patterns recur:
- the plan is not costed, so it cannot compete for budget
- responsibilities sit across several ministries with no single point of coordination
- the plan lives in a separate document from the annual operational plans and budgets
- there is no simple way to track progress, so nobody notices when it slips
A practical sequence
1. Cost and prioritise. Not everything can happen at once. Cost the actions, rank them by risk and feasibility, and agree what will be done in the next one to three years.
2. Assign clear ownership. Every action needs a lead institution, a named focal point and a deadline. AMR and zoonotic threats need a One Health approach, with human, animal and environmental health working from the same plan.
3. Put it into the planning system. Priorities should appear as items in the annual plan, project proformas where capital funding is needed, and medium-term budgets. A plan that is not in the budget is a hope.
4. Strengthen the basics. Surveillance, laboratory links, infection prevention and control, and surveillance of antimicrobial use are the foundations. Many of the biggest gains come from making existing systems work reliably.
5. Practise. Simulation exercises and after-action reviews reveal weaknesses that desk assessments miss. Treat them as routine, not one-off events.
6. Track progress simply. A one-page dashboard with a few indicators, reviewed regularly by a coordination group, is enough to keep momentum.
The role of project design
Many health security priorities need dedicated funding. Developing well-structured project proposals, such as coordination units and national programmes for AMR containment, gives governments something concrete to take to development partners and to their own finance departments.
Health security is only as strong as its weakest link. Execution, not planning, is where the next gains will come from.
