The World Health Organization's National Health Simulation Exercise Programme

This article highlights the role of simulation exercises (SimEx) in strengthening national health emergency preparedness. While countries have conducted over 225 exercises since 2016, the current ad hoc approach reveals gaps in scope, consistency, and follow-up. To address these, WHO proposes the National Health Simulation Exercise Programme (NHSEP), a coordinated multi-year strategy to systematically test and refine emergency response capacities. The NHSEP emphasizes planning, monitoring, evaluation, and knowledge sharing to improve International Health Regulations (IHR) compliance and resilience. Ultimately, it seeks to ensure that lessons learned translate into real-world readiness, reducing the impact of future public health emergencies.