Joint external evaluation of the International Health Regulations (‎2005)‎ core capacities of Samoa - Mission report, 30 October-3 November 2023

Overview

During the JEE mission, which took place in Apia from 30 October to 3 November 2023, Samoa’s capacities in 19 technical areas were evaluated through a peer-to-peer consultative process that brought together a multisectoral group of national subject matter experts and the multinational, multidisciplinary expert JEE team for discussion, interaction and selected site visits. After a week of collaborative talks this process led to consensus on scores and priority actions across the 19 technical areas, determined to improve implementation of the IHR (2005) and thereby to enhance health security and the resilience of the Samoan health system. 

While those areas are addressed in the respective sections of this report, the evaluation also generated five wider, overarching recommendations that, if implemented, will consolidate Samoa’s progress and remove bottlenecks that might impede the implementation of the agreed priority actions. These recommendations, outlined below, address cross-cutting challenges affecting Samoa’s capacities across many of the different technical areas that were explored in greater depth in the JEE process.