World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for GOARN

Duration: 2023 - 2025

Partner institution: Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), World Health Organization (WHO)

Involved RKI unit: ZIG 1

GOARN leadership training in Berlin in September 2023. Source: RKI

Challenges addressed by the project

The world is becoming increasingly interconnected, which brings numerous advantages but also poses challenges to the area of public health. Infectious disease outbreaks, natural hazards and man-made disasters need to be considered in a global context to minimise the threat to the health of people. This is the focus of the WHO Collaborating Centre for GOARN (WHO CC GOARN), the only one of its kind in the world, based at the Robert Koch Institute. The Collaborating Centre is supporting the activities of GOARN (Global Outbreak and Response Network), a global network of more than 300 institutions that respond to acute public health outbreaks by deploying personnel and resources to affected countries. It is a central mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO) outside of the structures of the United Nations (UN) for responding rapidly and appropriately to health threats of international concern.

Objectives

Since the beginning of 2019, public health experts at the WHO CC GOARN have been working to strengthen and further expand capacities to prepare and respond to outbreaks. This work focuses on prevention, outbreak control and response to public health emergencies. In cooperation with the WHO, especially with the GOARN Operational Support Team (OST), GOARN aims to support the exchange of knowledge and information between all partner countries through various activities. The WHO CC GOARN is aligned with the priorities of the German government's Global Health Strategy and contributes to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2030 Agenda).

Overview of activities

Many lessons have been learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Collaborating Centre is incorporating them into its activities. For example, it supported WHO and GOARN OST in the development and implementation of the “GOARN - Outbreak and Response Leadership Training Programme”, which aims to enable public health leaders to reflect on their leadership skills, build networks and improve their ability to respond to outbreaks and emergencies. In addition, the WHO CC GOARN supports a range of activities prioritised by GOARN OST. These include training in the use and implementation of Go.Data - a digital tool to support outbreak response, the development of quality standards for the use of mobile laboratories, and more.

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