Acknowledgement

The World Health Organization (WHO) would like to express its sincere gratitude to all those who contributed to the development of the WHO Benchmarks for Strengthening Health Emergency Capacities. The WHO Health Security Preparedness Department developed this tool to support States Parties, partners, academia and WHO regional and country offices.

Thank you to our colleagues at WHO Headquarters who provided valuable input, review and expert consultations: Mohamed Refaat Abdelfattah, Philip Abdelmalik, Onyema Ajuebor, Oluwatosin Akand, April Baller, Benedetta Allegranzi, Farah Al-Shorbaji, Brett Archer, Anand Balachandran, Valentina Baltag, Sara Barragan Montes, Helene Barroy, Uzma Bashir, Yolanda Bayugo, Isabel Bergeri, Silvia Bertagnolio, Eric Gerard Bertherat, Supriya Bezbaruah, Kingsley Bieh, Lucy Boulanger, Nienke Bruinsma, James Campbell, Zhanat Carr, Lisa Carter, Ofelia Cazaku, Denis Charles, Musse Chekol, Sean Cockerham, Sebastien Bruno Francois Cognat, Giorgio Cometto, Frederik Anton Copper, Peter Cowley, Miranda Deeves, Stéphane De La Rocque De Severac, Khassoum Diallo, Zlatina Dobreva, Jicui Dong, Erin Downey, Rachelle El Khoury, Sergey Eremin, Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Melinda Frost, Lester Sam Geroy, Nina Gobat, Shoshanna Goldin, Fernando Gonzalez- Martin, Brandon Gray, Michael Griffin, Christine Guillard, Fahmy Hanna, Sarah Hess, Vicky Houssiere, Kai- Hsun Hsiao, Qudsia Huda, Verica Ivanoska, Nellie Kartoglu, Mika Kawano, Suzanne Kerba, Kazunobu Kojima, Monika Kosinska, Ljubica Latinovic, Hannah Lewis, Jian Li, Glenn Lolong, Ramona Ludolph, Catherine Makison Booth, Constance McDonough-Thaye, Yuki Minato, Andrew Mirelman, Ryoko Miyazaki-Krause, Paul Molinaro, Madison Moon, Simone Moraes Raszl, Thomas Moran, Deusdedit Mubangizi, Arno Muller, Tapas Nair, Tim Nguyen, Lesley Jayne Onyan, Ponnu Padiyara, Narayan Pal Shanthi, Sarah Paulin-Deschenaux, Boris Pavlin, Devin Perkins, Emilie Peron, Carmen Pessoa da Silva, Camila Philbert Lajolo, Rogerio Paulo Pinto De Sa Gaspar, Pravarscha Prakash, Ong-orn Prasarnphanich, Tina Purnat, Guillaume Queyras, Pryanka Relan, Mauricio Reynaud, Kwang Rim, Clara Rodriguez Ribas, Paul Rogers, Diana Rojas Alvarez, Sohel Saikat, Flavio Salio, Gina Samaan, Karl Schenkel, Lisa Scheuermann, Redda Seifeldin, Dubravka Selenic Minet, Rajesh Shreedharan, Katja Siling, Hiiti Baran Sillo, Sudhvir Singh, Susan Sparkes, Romina Stelter, Lisa Stevens, Sameera Suri, Ludy Prapancha Suryantoro, Rayoko Takahashi, Barnas Thamrin, Joao Toledo, Anthony Twyman, Nosheen Usman, Nicole Valentine, Mark Van Ommeren, Liviu Vedrasco, Kai Von Harbou, Ninglan Wang, Kathleen (Taylor) Warren, Niluka Wijekoon Kannangarage, Victoria Willet, Jun Xing, Yu Zang and Rica Zinskey.

A special thank you to colleagues at WHO regional offices who provided valuable insight, review and expert perspectives: Ali Abdullah, Jehan Al-Badri, Ali Ardalan, Gertrude Avortri, Tara Rose Aynsley, Celso Bambaren, Deborah Barasa, Joyrine Biromumaiso, Philippe Borremans, Nilesh Buddha, Emma Callon, Alex Camacho, Astrid Chojnacki, Jennifer Collins, Ana Paula Coutinho Rehse, Ibadat Dhillon, Senait Tekeste Fekadu, Mahgoub Hamid, Peggy Hanna, Iman Heweidy, Genevieve Howse, Masaya Kato, Aminata Grace Kobie, Benjamin Kung, Jan-Erik Larsen, Zhao Li, Allan Mpairwe, Miriam Nanzunia, Julienne Ngoundoung Anoko, Phuong Nam Nguyen, Leonardo Palumbo, Ihor Perehinets, Jetri Regmi, Cristiana Salvi, Dalia Samhouri, Reuben Samuel, Tanja Schmidt, Sandip Shinde, Aparna Singh Shah and Roland Wango. A special thank you to representatives of WHO Member States who provided input: Jantsansengee Baigalmaa (Mongolia), Chuman Lal Das Kebrat (Nepal), Muhammad Salman (Pakistan), Ratsamy Vongkhamsao (Lao People’s Democratic Republic).

A sincere thank you to our partners, including international organizations and academia for their time and the particular inputs of: Mario Ignacio Alguerno (World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH)), Susan Amoaten (United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA)), Hellen Amuguni (Tufts University), Cedric Aperce (Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL)), Ombretta Baggio (International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC)), Sulzhan Bali (World Bank), Nicholas Brook (UKHSA), Sydney Morgan Brown (United States Centres for Disease Control (US-CDC)), Gina Chen (UKHSA), Haydn Cole (UKHSA), Michael Coninx (US-CDC), Duncan Cox (UKHSA), Sheena De Silva (The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA)), Raquel Duarte-Davidson (UKHSA), Gwendolen Eamer (IFRC), Rania Elessawi (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)), Sarah Emami (RTSL), Tina Endericks (UKHSA), Annie-May Gibb (UKHSA), Rachel Goodermote (IFRC), Lydia Izon-Cooper (UKHSA), Humberto Jaime (UNICEF), Mariam Kone (IFRC), Jennifer Lasley (WOAH), Christopher Lee (RTSL), David Lowrance (The Global Fund), Rachel Amy MacLeod (IFRC), Silvia Magnoni (IFRC), Mike Mahar (US- CDC), Amanda McClelland (RTSL), Maureen McKenna (IFRC), Virginia Murray (UKHSA), Rohini Pande (World Bank), Julio Pinto (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), Monica Posada (IFRC), Maria Consorcia Quizon (SafetyNet), Wbeimar Sanchez (IFRC), Maya Schaerer (IFRC), Muhammad Shafique (IFRC), Jane Shallcross (UKHSA), Charles Turner (UKHSA), Madeline Tyre (Health Canada), Julie Wahl (RTSL) and Peter Williams (CARPHA).

We would also like to extend gratitude to the members of the World Health Organization Strategic & Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards with Pandemic and Epidemic Potential as well as the members of the World Health Organization Informal Technical Working Group for Health Security Preparedness Research, Development and Innovation.

The tool was developed and finalized by the Evidence and Analytics for Health Security Unit, in particular by Priyanga Ranasinghe, Rebecca Gribble, Luc Tsachoua Choupe, Marc Ho, Guna Nidhi Sharma, Lina Yu, Barbara Burmen, Cynthia Bell, Luca Vernaccini, Lorcan Clarke, Robert Nguni, under the supervision of Nirmal Kandel and the leadership of Stella Chungong, Scott Pendergast and Mike Ryan. The tool was edited by Sanjana Ravi and administrative support was provided by Cecile Vella.