The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated RIVM as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Behavioural Science for Health Emergency Preparedness and Resilience. The centre is part of the Behaviour and Health department of RIVM in the Netherlands.

The Collaborating Centre supports the WHO in several key areas: 

• Understanding behaviours and their social or contextual determinants in relation to health crises.
• Measurement of population-level behaviour around health emergencies.
• Building capacity in behavioural and cultural insights (BCI) through documentation, training and knowledge sharing

Health crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted that behavioural science is crucial for health emergency preparedness and response. The WHO CC contributes to the WHO Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPR) framework and to the Preparedness 2.0 strategy (2024-2029), in which behavioural sciences play a central role. 

Examples of activities include: 

• Conducting literature reviews on behavioural science in preparedness and response.
• Coordinating a behaviour and preparedness monitor between the Netherlands and other Member States (e.g. Ireland, Slovenia, Spain).
• Researching the link between national behavioural strategies and crisis preparation.
• Developing theoretical frameworks and toolkits for data collection.
• Providing training and capacity building in behavioural techniques.

Coordination 

The WHO Collaborating Centre is coordinated by Dr Doctor (Doctor ) Jet Sanders. 

Contact information

email: behaviour.and.health@rivm.nl