Introduction
10. Investing in learning can transform WHO into a 'learning organization[1] where continuous learning and development is the responsibility of all, including the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) staff. In addition to formal learning and training for all staff, learning that supports WHE's goals takes place through work experience supported by line managers and peers. It includes feedback and situational awareness built from operational experience. We recommend personnel spend 5% of their work time on learning.
WHE learning pathways
20. WHO corporately is establishing career pathways supported by learning paths. Impactful and high-quality learning activities will support and link to individual career pathways and the Organization's operational needs, such as preparing for and responding to emergencies in the case of WHE.
30. WHE learning pathways can be flexible and adaptable in pace and mix and include formal and informal activities. The common critical components are that each person and/or team working in emergencies in WHE needs to have a clear learning goal and direction and make an informed and supported choice to take a particular path. While linked to personnel's overall career development, the WHE learning path is specifically focused on performance improvement.
40. Individuals and/or teams will work with WHE supervisors, colleagues, the WHE Learning and Capacity Development Unit (LCD) and WHO Human Resources to ensure that their learning path takes them to the desired performance destination.
50. WHE personnel's learning pathway begins with the professional credentials, experience and skills in emergency work that they bring to the unit. They then establish a common core understanding of the WHE emergency work principles, approaches, systems, processes and language. From that core understanding and foundation, three primary WHE learning pathways are defined:
a) Public health in emergencies
b) Emergency operationsc) Leadership for emergency work
60. WHE personnel may choose to take more than one learning path, and one path may sometimes overlap with other paths.
The Learning and Capacity Development Unit
70. The Learning and Capacity Development Unit in the WHE Executive Director's Office seeks to provide a learning environment for WHO staff and partners to share and acquire health emergency-specific knowledge, skills and competencies. LCD nurtures a learning ecosystem with a wide range of stakeholders at the global, regional and country levels and fosters the resilience of national and local systems. The unit supports preparedness capacity development and enables emergency learning for staff, response partners and emergency responders to facilitate safe, efficient and effective responses.
80. LCD designs and develops engaging learning programmes powered by innovative adult learning science. The programmes support staff career development and align with public health, operational and leadership learning pathways, to further strengthen the global architecture of health emergencies.
Learning platforms
90. LCD partners with WHO regional offices and country offices to provide critical public health learning, particularly in the countries' national languages, through the Serving Countries portal on OpenWHO.org. Country offices interested in launching a country-specific learning channel should contact LCD at outbreak.training@who.int.
100. WHO's three key platforms for learning in health emergencies—OpenWHO.org, iLearn and the Health Security Learning Platform—are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Key platforms for learning in health emergencies
OpenWHO.org A WHO global learning platform open to all, anytime, from anywhere | iLearn
A WHO internal corporate learning platform | Health Security Learning Platform (HSLP) A WHO learning platform dedicated to the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005 |
| OpenWHO.org serves the world with hundreds of self-paced, multilingual, open-access and free online courses providing real-time public health and life-saving knowledge in health emergencies. It is a large-scale and unlimited learning platform offering core curricula for health emergency readiness and response to millions of learners worldwide. | iLearn is WHO's corporate tool for learning and development. It can be accessed by the entire workforce, with more than 17 000 users. | HSLP supports the learning needs of organizations and individuals whose responsibilities in public health and related sectors include strengthening health security by implementing IHR 2005. It provides a wide range of learning programmes, activities and materials. |
110. All WHO personnel must complete four mandatory courses on iLearn, and several courses recommended to WHE personnel. The courses are listed, with links, in Table 2.
Table 2. Essential learning in health emergencies
| WHO mandatory online learning ( iLearn) | WHE recommended learning |
- UN BSAFE course - Multilingual 2022 (1 hour)
- United to Respect: Preventing sexual harassment and other prohibited conduct course (1 hour)
- Prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA) course - Multilingual 2021 (1 hour)
- Cybersecurity essentials and preventing phishing course - Multilingual (27 min)
| - Online learning on OpenWHO.org
- Ready4Response courses: Tier 1 (7 hours) and Tier 2 (5 hours)
- Incident Management System courses: Tier 1 (3 hours) and Tier 2 (3 hours)
- The Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) course (5 hours)
- Health Cluster Coordination course (9 hours)
- WHO Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Emergencies course (6.5 hours)
- Blended learning with LCD
|
120. For more information on essential learnings for emergencies, contact WHEtraining@who.int or visit our dedicated Learning Support site.
[1]A learning organization can be defined as an organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights" (See https://hbr.org/1993/07/building-a-learning-organization)
