World Humanitarian Day: The response starts before the emergency

When an emergency strikes, the response needs to move fast. But the work that makes that possible has often been under way long before the first alert, the first deployment or the arrival of the first patient.

The planning. The surveillance. The guidelines. The standard operating procedures. The training. The coordination networks that serve as safety nets for countries in need. The relationships built long before they are needed. The systems tested before they are put under pressure. The trust in WHO, humanitarian partners and science harnessed over decades of research and international cooperation. And the lessons learned from past crises.

Across the WHO European Region, this often-invisible work is what allows WHO and its partners to turn information into action and response. And the learning does not stop when the immediate response ends: what happens in an emergency feeds back into planning, training, guidance and systems, making the next response stronger.

For World Humanitarian Day, we look behind the scenes at the people, systems and partnerships that help make an effective emergency response possible - and show why, in humanitarian action, the response starts long before the emergency.

This is what preparedness looks like in practice.

Preparation is not just for peacetime

For hospitals in Ukraine, emergency preparedness means planning for a crisis that could happen at any moment.

In Dnipro, Mechnikov Regional Clinical Hospital is just one institution that has been working with WHO through the Hospital Safety Index initiative to assess how well it can withstand shocks and keep essential services running during the war. The assessment looks beyond clinical care. It reviews structural safety, non-structural risks such as equipment and utilities, emergency management systems, continuity of essential services, backup power and water, evacuation routes, surge capacity, and emergency response plans.

That work proved important when the hospital came under attack in May 2026. Preparedness measures helped support the hospital's response under extreme pressure. Backup systems helped maintain critical functions, staff knew how to move patients safely, and essential services could continue despite damage and disruption. The experience showed how practical preparedness measures can help hospitals remain functional during a crisis.

WHO continues to work with hospitals across Ukraine on preparedness even as the war is ongoing, helping teams identify vulnerabilities before hospital systems are tested by a crisis.

"Each crisis is different, but every time we respond, we learn. I hope we never have to face it again, but now we're more agile and better prepared", shared a participant in a WHO Hospital Safety Index training session.

As attacks on health care increase, preparedness means keeping facilities open, protecting health care workers and ensuring that people can still receive life-saving and routine care.

Coordinated emergency response

Emergency Medical Team members discuss the response to the earthquakes in Türkiye, 2023.

Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) save lives in the first days after a disaster, but their ability to deploy quickly depends on years of preparedness before the crisis begins.

Across the Region, WHO has been working with countries to strengthen EMTs through common standards, quality assurance, training, coordination, preparedness and deployment planning. The aim is to ensure that EMTs are prepared and trained in peacetime to deliver safe, effective and quality care in accordance with defined standards when emergencies occur. Teams are also expected to be operationally self-sufficient and able to coordinate and work seamlessly with national authorities, other EMTs and response partners within established emergency coordination systems.

That preparedness was tested on 6 February 2023, when devastating earthquakes struck Türkiye.

Serkan Demirci, National Unit Coordinator of the Ministry of Health of Türkiye's National Medical Rescue Team (UMKE), recalls the intensity of the first days after the earthquakes: "I was walking amongst the triage tents. There were only ambulances who brought injured people from the collapsed buildings and citizens who brought their own injured relatives. I realized that this was the worst scene I had ever witnessed in my 27-year career."

Within hours and days, national teams were mobilized, and 38 international EMTs arrived from around the world. Field treatment capacities were established by EMTs, trauma care was delivered, and health teams worked alongside national services to support an overwhelmed health system.

WHO also supported the Ministry of Health of Türkiye in establishing and running an EMT coordination cell, helping coordinate the work of national and international teams, direct them to where needs were greatest and ensure that the wider EMT response worked as one coordinated effort.

The visible response - tents, surgical teams, ambulances, field hospitals and trauma care - was only the tip of the iceberg. Behind it were trained personnel, agreed procedures, common evidence-based technical standards grounded in best practices and lessons learned from previous response operations, established coordination mechanisms, and years of work to ensure that teams could move quickly and safely while supporting national leadership.

WHO acts as the governing body and secretariat for the EMT Initiative and sets global standards, coordinates external peer-reviews and manages the quality assurance and classification system for EMTs responding to disasters and health crises.

Spotting the first signals of an outbreak

Medical staff in protective equipment await the arrival of the MV Hondius cruise ship, Tenerife, Spain after an outbreak of hantavirus on board.

Even before major cross-border public health events occur, WHO public health intelligence experts work around the clock to detect signals before they escalate. In 2025 alone, they screened 224 000 items of information from official and media sources, including notifications from International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) focal points. This led to the identification of 116 major public health events, 70 of which required an immediate WHO operational response and follow-up.

On 2 May 2026, the IHR National Focal Point (NFP) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland informed WHO of a cluster of cases of undiagnosed severe acute respiratory illness aboard a Netherlands-flagged cruise ship; there had been two deaths and one passenger was critically ill. On the same day, laboratory testing in South Africa confirmed hantavirus infection in a critically ill patient receiving intensive care.

What followed was one of the most complex multi-country outbreak responses in recent years - and a direct test of the IHR (2005), the legally binding global framework requiring States Parties to prevent, prepare for, detect, report and respond to public health threats that cross borders.

WHO graded the event as a Grade 2 emergency on a no-regrets basis, aiming to achieve total containment of the outbreak while working across all three levels of the Organization and all regions. The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) maintained constant contact with Member States through IHR channels and worked closely with partners, including the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Union's Emergency Response Coordination Centre.

As the response progressed, WHO/Europe worked with partners to coordinate support for the medical evacuation and tracking of passengers from the MV Hondius and the further repatriation of crew members. It also issued risk communication messages, providing health information and advice to prevent further spread of the outbreak. In close coordination with ECDC, WHO also developed a range of technical guidance, including standardized case definitions; clinical guidance; case reporting forms; guidance on infection prevention and control and on case and contact management; and considerations for points of entry.

For more than a decade, WHO/Europe has fostered a community of practice for IHR NFPs through the global and European IHR NFP knowledge networks. Alongside regional IHR NFP workshops and the IHR NFP twinning initiative, this has contributed to a stronger, more connected and more resilient NFP community across the European Region and globally.

"UKHSA worked closely with a range of international partners during the hantavirus response, building on pre-existing established partnerships - this demonstrated the vital role of international partnerships in detecting, preventing and responding to global health threats," said Dr Chris Lewis, Director, Global Health Protection, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

This World Humanitarian Day, the lesson is clear: humanitarian action begins well before an emergency. Preparedness, often unsung, overlooked and invisible, is what allows health care workers to act fast, work together and deliver life-saving care when real emergencies arrive.