Combined Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Assessment (PHEPA) in the Netherlands
In January 2025, the World Health Organization and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) carried out the first ever joint Joint External Evaluation (JEE) and Public Health Emergency Preparedness Assessment (PHEPA) evaluation in the Netherlands. A team of international experts assessed our preparedness for public health events – from infectious disease outbreaks to other cross-border health threats – in line with the International Health Regulations (IHR) and the EU European Union (European Union) Serious Cross Border Threat to Health (SCBTH) regulation.

The Netherlands was the first country to combine these two evaluations into a single process, resulting in a more comprehensive assessment. In total, 23 capacities have been evaluated. Over 200 experts from many sectors contributed, with site visits to municipal health services, the Major Incident Hospital and RIVM. 

The evaluation focuses on the full breadth of preparing for health threats. Think of legislation, funding, management and coordination, but also more substantive themes such as surveillance, laboratories, food safety, zoonoses, infection prevention, and chemical or radiological incidents. Within the PHEPA, five capacities have also been selected for deeper evaluation: antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections; Laboratory; Surveillance; Health emergency management and zoonotic diseases and threats of ecological origin, including those resulting from climate change.

WHO recently published the full JEE-PHEPA Evaluation report. It shows that the Netherlands has a solid foundation for the protection of public health and includes over 80 recommendations.  

In accordance with the EU regulation, Member States have a period of nine months to investigate how the recommendations from the report can be implemented. In the coming period, the next steps will be discussed with the key partners.

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious disease Preparedness and IHR Monitoring and Evaluation of RIVM is currently evaluating the joint JEE-PHEPA process to identify lessons learnt and recommendations for future joint JEE-PHEPAs.

Redesignation:  In 2025, the WHO CC for Infectious Disease Preparedness and IHR M&E has been redesignated for another period of four years, from 2025-2029. Redesignation allows the WHO CC to continue to support WHO by providing technical expertise in this field.

 Support for the JADE exercise, Copenhagen. The WHO CC supports the development and execution of the yearly Joint Assessment and Detection of Events (JADE) exercise, a functional exercise conducted by WHO. The purpose of the JADE Exercise is to strengthen the functions of National Focal Points (NFPs) and to demonstrate the importance of IHR communication in contributing to risk assessment and situation monitoring, both regionally and globally.

Participation during Joint External Evaluations (JEE). Albania December 2025, Armenia December 2023, Estonia October 2023, Republic of Finland, March 2017; United Arab Emirates, March 2017; Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, December 2016. The purpose of the external evaluation is to assess country-specific status, progress in achieving the targets under Annex 1 of the IHR and recommend priority actions to be taken across the 19 technical areas being evaluated. Examples of areas where the WHO CC experts contributed are human resources, biosafety & biosecurity, and risk communication & community engagement .

Intra-Action Review in the Republic of Suriname, 2023, Suriname. Upon request of PAHO, the WHO CC conducted an intra-action review in Suriname to evaluate the country’s COVID-19 response. The review brought together key stakeholders to reflect on successes and challenges, and to identify lessons learned during the pandemic. The findings provided concrete recommendations to strengthen Suriname’s preparedness for future public health emergencies.