AKIPRESS.COM - Kyrgyzstan has completed the last step towards endorsing its first action plan for health security by conducting a cost assessment, based on a WHO planning and costing tool which validated the feasibility of the plan. The Government will now route the plan through the formal ratification process in the coming months, the WHO reported.

The plan is a multisectoral strategy which lays out the priority actions for fully implementing the International Health Regulations (IHR) and having all of the capacity and systems in place to manage emergencies. This will be the first of its kind in the country.

Dr Kubanychbek Kundashev, Deputy Director for the Department of Disease Prevention and State Sanitary Epidemiological Surveillance, highlighted the importance of multisectoral work and the commitment of Kyrgyzstan to strengthen its preparedness and response capacity to all public health events.

The development of the plan began after the country conducted a Joint External Evaluation in 2016 to evaluate IHR core capacities in 19 technical areas against 48 indicators, using a multisectoral and all-hazards approach. The action plan addresses the specific recommendations for priority actions which were proposed during this evaluation.

This global tool facilitates the planning and costing of detailed activities of national action plans. It easily adapts to the country context and provides for cost estimation and the review of estimates.

WHO supported the Ministry of Health of Kyrgyzstan to conduct a 2-day costing workshop to validate and cost the national action plan for health security on 10–11 September 2019. 20 participants representing different sectors, including health, veterinary, environment, emergency, agriculture and economy, took part in the event. The outcome of the cost estimation resulted in the successful validation of the proposed plan.

WHO will continue to support Kyrgyzstan in the process of endorsing the plan and in its use to mobilize both human and financial resources.