8 November 2021 - WHO supports North Macedonia to review and improve its COVID-19 response
On 2-5 November 2021, WHO experts joined forces with the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin to conduct an Intra-Action Review of North Macedonia’s ongoing COVID-19 response, together with national health authorities. Investing in human resources and their skills development, updating legislation, improving communication between health workers, and digitalization were among the main areas for recommendation. The European Union funded Western Balkans Project for Strengthening health systems resilience in the country provided financial and in-kind support to this mission.
Intra-Action Review on COVID-19 response
The Intra-Action Review (IAR) is a country-led process that allows countries to review their COVID-19 response as it happens, identify best practices, gaps and lessons learned, and flag actions for immediate remediation or for sustained improvement of their outbreak response, in light of the protracted nature of the pandemic. This work is a part of WHO’s support to national health authorities to effectively respond to the pandemic. 
“During the pandemic response, North Macedonia has accumulated new experiences about COVID-19, and the review process helps identify necessary and timely strategy modifications for better actions now and in the future. This is an important step for accelerating emergency preparedness and response capacities of the national health authorities for any future public health threat”, said Dr Jihane Tawilah, WHO Representative to North Macedonia.
Cross-cutting recommendations
Together with national epidemiologists and public health professionals, WHO experts reviewed specific areas of the country’s COVID-19 response, including country-level coordination, planning, and monitoring; surveillance; rapid response teams and case investigation; case management; maintaining essential health services and systems and COVID-19 vaccination; and risk communication and community engagement. 
The IAR resulted in the identification of several short and long-term actions to be taken. They included:
•	investing in sustainable human resources;
•	continuing to build capacity, through trainings and regular simulation exercises;
•	updating legislation related to emergencies and communicable diseases;
•	improving communication between healthcare providers at all levels; and 
•	enhancing the ongoing digitalization of health information systems. 
These identified actions will now be prioritized for implementation.

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