Coordination and alignment with relevant global and UK International Health Regulations: Lessons from the Public Health England International Health Regulations Strengthening Project

The mid-term evaluation of the PHE IHR Project explored a number of areas that are relevant to the project’s role in relation to other relevant global and UK GHS interventions. These include, amongst others, whether project activities are aligned, complementary to and coherent with other relevant UK ODA and international health security programmes. The PHE IHR Project business case makes clear references to coherence, alignment and coordination. The importance of coordinated cross-government action is highlighted to mobilise expertise from ten government departments, including with major IHR-related projects such as the Tackling Deadly Diseases in Africa Programme (TDDAP) and the Fleming Fund, as well as complementary support to key institutions at regional and global levels. There is, though, only a limited description of how this coordination will happen, for example in outline terms in the PHE IHR Project Theory of Change (ToC), which features intermediate outcomes such as ‘shared understanding of priorities, goals, activities, resources and timeframe’ and ‘Plans provide the basis of coordinated support by stakeholders‘. With the end of the current phase of the PHE IHR Project fast approaching, and in the context of the trends described below, it is a good time to take stock of any implications for the design of a second phase of UK / PHE support to strengthening IHR core capacities.