2.2.4Active indicatorDetection, Preparedness, and Response to Health Emergencies
2.1Assessment and planning of health adaptation
2.2Enabling conditions, adaptation delivery, and implementation
2.3Vulnerabilities, health risk, and resilience to climate change
Indicator 2.2.4 · Adaptation
Detection, Preparedness, and Response to Health Emergencies
Strong emergency-management capacities are essential for protecting health from climate-related emergencies. Changing climatic conditions can increase the risk of infectious disease outbreaks and other health emergencies, making effective surveillance, preparedness, and response increasingly important. This indicator tracks countries’ implementation of the International Health Regulations core capacities for health emergency management.
Headline finding
2025, 131 (68%) of 194 WHO member states reported high to very high implementation of health emergency management capacities
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Figure 1
Detection, Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies
Level of implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR) preparedness capacities from 2022 to 2025, including health emergency management capacity (IHR C7) and financing for public health emergency response (IHR C3.2). Results are available for the world, WHO regions, Human Development Index (HDI) groups, and Lancet Countdown regions, and can be presented as either the percentage or number of countries at each level of implementation.
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Figure 2
Change in Preparedness Scores by Country
Change in preparedness scores by country from 2022 to 2025 for health emergency management capacity (IHR C7) and financing for public health emergency response (IHR C3.2).
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About this indicator
Description
This indicator illustrates country health emergency management capacities as self-assessed by countries annually for their report on the implementation of the International Health Regulation. The indicator use data from the WHO State Parties annual reporting tool (SPAR), related to IHR Capacity 7: Health Emergency Management (3 IHR Capacities) and IHR Capacity 3.2: Financing for Public Health Emergency Response. The time series of reports enable a review of progress in the development and implementation of IHR core capacities, with scores calculated each year according to the SPAR methodology .
Authors
Dr Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, Dr Yasna Palmeiro-Silva, Hyunju Lee, Christian, Schweizer
Caveats
The annual report is mandatory, and WHO include these data in its report to the World Health Assembly on the implementation of the IHR. SPAR responses are self-reported, through a multisectoral process led by the national IHR Focal point.. The IHR core capacities tracked by this indicator are not specific to climate-driven risk changes, and they capture potential capacity – not action. Finally, it does not measure the quality of surveillance, nor the effectiveness of emergency response plans, which are associated with other Core capacities in SPAR.
Data sources
- International Health Regulations (2005) Annual Reporting. Data were downloaded from the electronic IHR State Parties Self-Assessment Annual reporting Tool (e-SPAR) for 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. Accessed 15 April 2026.