The World Health Organisation (WHO) and Peking University have launched a two-year partnership to strengthen global preparedness for health emergencies, with a focus on research, specialised training and better ways of measuring whether countries are ready to respond to crises.
The collaboration agreement, which took effect on August 1, 2026, brings together WHO’s Department of Health Emergency Preparedness, through its Risk Analytics and Action Reviews (RAR) Unit, and Peking University’s Institute for Global Health.
The partnership is intended to strengthen countries’ capacity to prevent, prepare for and respond to health emergencies while improving resilience and ensuring that preparedness decisions are based on evidence.
The agreement will centre on three areas.
The organisations will conduct operational and implementation research into health emergency preparedness; develop and deliver training on WHO preparedness tools; and create methodologies for assessing investments in preparedness and measuring their outcomes and impact.
Training will cover several WHO approaches, including benchmarks for strengthening health emergency capacities, simulation exercises (SimEx), after-action reviews (AARs) and Dynamic Preparedness Metrics (DPM).
The emphasis on measurement is significant because preparedness is increasingly being viewed not simply as the existence of emergency plans, but as the ability to demonstrate that health systems can identify threats, respond effectively and recover from disruptions.
The partnership is also expected to help generate practical evidence that can be applied by governments and health institutions when designing and strengthening emergency preparedness programmes.
Peking University brings established expertise in global health research and public health capacity development. The university has been designated a WHO Collaborating Centre in several areas, including universal health coverage.
The new agreement also expands WHO’s academic network supporting its health emergency preparedness work. WHO said the RAR Unit now has sustained collaborations with four leading universities across different regions, bringing together research expertise, technical capacity, training and analytical tools.
The partnerships are intended to complement WHO’s work by providing additional research and analytical capacity while helping translate preparedness concepts into practical tools that can be used by countries.
The collaboration comes amid continued efforts to strengthen global health security after the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and other health emergencies exposed weaknesses in surveillance, response capacity, coordination and preparedness in many countries.
WHO said the agreement supports the objectives of its Fourteenth General Programme of Work and broader international efforts to improve preparedness and evidence-informed decision-making.
The two-year agreement will run until July 31, 2028, with the possibility of extension by mutual agreement.
