Juba- To enhance South Sudan’s capacity to respond to health emergencies, World Health Organization (WHO) convened a Joint Operational Review (JOR) to evaluate the country’s emergency response efforts amidst multiple health challenges and reduced fundings.

South Sudan continues to grapple with complex humanitarian situation fueled by multiple shocks including sub-national violent conflict, Sudan crisis spillover, including outbreaks of Cholera, Mpox, Hepatitis E, Anthrax, circulating Variant polio virus type 2 (cVDPV2), as well as recurrent flooding, and acute food insecurity. These shocks are compounding an already protracted humanitarian crisis.

Despite the country’s ongoing investment in its emergency response capacity. The impact of multiple emergencies continues to a) exhaust the limited resources, b) cause fatigue amongst the emergency responders, risking burnout, c) divert the health workforce from development work, and d) in turn weaken the health system's capacity to respond adequately to health needs.

The JoR aimed to appreciate the context, identify and document best practices, gaps, challenges, and lessons learned during the response to multiple emergencies. This analysis, shared between the three levels of the organization would then be used to generate priority interventions, innovations and critical resource needs of WHO in the short to medium term. Beyond the internal WHO needs, the JOR identified new ways of working with government and other emergency responders in the country to deliver results with up-to-date, evidence-based, and cost-effective plans.

The review focused on key pillars of outbreaks response namely, Management and operations, essential health service delivery and business continuity; health information; laboratory backed surveillance for all epidemic potential diseases; and leadership and coordination in multiple emergencies context.

“To enhance our preparedness and readiness to effectively support South Sudan to improve its response capacities to multiple emergencies and save lives of people affected, we must adapt to the current context, improve coordination and embark on implementing efficient, flexible, agile and comprehensive systems that integrate technical staff, resources, and information systems for effective emergency response”, said Dr Aggrey Bategereza, Emergency Preparedness and Response Team Lead