The scale and impact of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic was unprecedented; however, public health emergencies (PHEs) have long posed substantial global risks, which are magnified for those in low-income or humanitarian settings. While health emergencies can arise from varied sources, they most commonly arise from infectious disease. In the past half a century, 20 epidemic-prone diseases, including cholera, dengue and haemorrhagic fevers, have either re-emerged or spread geographically. These trends are expected to intensify with heightened unpredictability and risk due to climate change, population growth, population movements, increased habitat encroachment, unplanned urbanization and protracted crises.
PHEs pose a profound threat to the UNICEF mandate of realizing the rights of every child, including adolescents and especially the most excluded. Across the levels and functions of the organization, UNICEF work in PHEs can be broadly classified as covering three main types of activity: enhancing global health security, national and community epidemic preparedness, and response to and recovery from PHEs. Early in the period under review, UNICEF work on PHEs rapidly expanded. In parallel to this scale-up of response activities, spending on PHEs also increased. UNICEF began organizing around health emergencies in 2016 with the Health Emergency Preparedness Initiative (HEPI), a series of preparedness and organizational activities intended to enable UNICEF to respond better to PHEs in support of governments and in coordination with partners. Since that time, UNICEF health emergency preparedness and response has come to entail a multisectoral, ‘whole-of-society’ and no-regrets approach. Over time, staffing and responsibilities have shifted with two divisions, Programme Group and Supply Division, posting staff to the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Currently, a unit dedicated to Health Emergencies Preparedness and Response (HEPR) sits in the Health Section/ Programme Group, with responsibility for both PHE preparedness and response, and also for health in emergencies.
