Transcription

OpenWHO: COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support country preparedness
and response

Module 2: Overview country-level preparedness and response

Presenter: Scott Pendergast

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[Slide #1] Welcome to Module 2 of the scaling up country readiness and support for COVID-19 response learning
course. Module 2 will be around country level preparedness and response.

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[Slide #2] In this module, you will be able to achieve five learning objectives. Number one: to describe the goal,
purpose and response plan for COVID-19. Number two: explain the objective of the operational planning
guidelines to support country preparedness and response. Number three: describe the eight pillars of response
planning and initial actions to be taken by the UN country teams. Number four: be able to access the full set of
activities performance indicators and resources. And finally, number five: you will be able to detail the next steps
required for country leads.

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[Slide #3] Who is this course for? These course modules are intended for use by all members of the UNCT on
an individual basis, by Resident coordinators, humanitarian coordinators and all other pillar and agency leaders.
These leaders are asked to encourage all UNCT members to complete this online learning. On top of this, we
have the UNCT focal point with responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the guidance, as well as donors
and any other relevant stakeholders. Now, Scott Pendergast will take you through the rest of Module 2.

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[Slide #4] Hello, my name is Scott Pendergast. I'm the director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships for WHO
Health Emergencies.

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[Slide #5] To enable UN country teams and partners to support national governments to prepare for and
potentially respond to COVID-19, WHO and partners have developed a practical set of guidelines for operational
planning at country level.

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[Slide #6] The purpose of these planning guidelines is to provide a common approach for all UN country teams
and partners in their support of countries. The objective of the guidelines is to ensure all countries can quickly
detect and diagnose imported cases of COVID-19 and rapidly stop local human-to-human transmission. Priority
support will be given to those countries with the highest risk and the lowest capability to respond.

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[Slide #7] The guidelines can be found in the links below and are built on existing national action plans for health
security and pandemic influenza preparedness taking into account what we have learned so far about COVID-
19.

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Transcription
OpenWHO: COVID-19: Operational Planning Guidelines and COVID-19 Partners Platform to support country preparedness
and response

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[Slide #8] These guidelines outline the priority steps and actions that need to be taken across the eight major
pillars of COVID-19 preparedness and response, which are: Country-level coordination, planning and monitoring.
Risk communication and community engagement. Surveillance, rapid-response and case investigation. Points of
entry. National laboratories. Infection prevention and control. Case management. And, operations support and
logistics.

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[Slide #9] These guidelines do not supersede existing national guidance, rather they can be used to rapidly adapt
existing national plans and focus international support in the highest priority areas.

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[Slide #10] The immediate next step is to develop a country specific COVID-19 preparedness and response plan
for the next three months. This will include appointing a COVID-19 planning lead within the UNCT to coordinate
and oversee the development of the country preparedness and response plan, engaging with national authorities
and the UN country team or humanitarian country team to identify appropriate coordination mechanisms and key
technical operational partners at country level, to map existing preparedness or response capacity and identify
the key gaps based on the actions outlined in this document, engaging with national authorities and key partners
to assign roles and responsibilities to address these key gaps, and engaging with country level programs and
donors to reprioritize and/or mobilize resources and capacities to implement the country preparedness and
response plan. You will also find guidance on establishing the monitoring mechanisms to track progress, review
performance and adjust country preparedness response plans as needed.

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[Slide #11] In the guidelines, you'll also be able to access a set of standard key performance indicators to monitor
progress and templates for estimating resource requirements for a cluster of local transmission of up to a hundred
cases including the essential supplies, critical technical and operational support, as well as training and incentives
for the national workforce.

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[Slide #12] In addition to the operational planning guidelines, an online planning tool will be made available
through this site to enable UN country teams and partners to report progress on the activities under each of the
major pillars of the response and request support for resources when those resources are not available at country
level. Thank you.