Mitigate the risk of the emergence and re-emergence of high-threat pathogens and improve pandemic preparedness The Secretariat will step up its leadership by:
establishing, leading, managing and strengthening the technical networks and global partnerships for research, development and allocation of countermeasures, as well as for the prevention, control and mitigation of novel, high-threat infectious hazards;
developing global strategies, with regional specificities, guidance and tools to prevent and manage emerging or re-emerging high-threat pathogens;
strengthening the implementation of the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, and coordinating the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System;
developing plans, strategies, systems and tools for epidemic and pandemic disease preparedness, such as the Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats initiative; and
strengthening pandemic preparedness, engaging multisectoral partnerships, with communities at the centre.

The Secretariat will support countries to:
prepare, prevent and manage outbreaks of emerging or re-emerging high-threat pathogens, and scale up interventions based on context and transmission patterns. This support will include the revision of pandemic preparedness plans taking into account specific and unknown (disease X) pathogens;
develop and implement robust IPC strategies at the national level to ensure that core components, including personal protective equipment, are adequate and available;
better understand community beliefs and behaviours in order to successfully implement community engagement activities in mitigating and managing outbreaks of high-risk pathogens;
implement the Global influenza strategy 2019?2030 in order to strengthen detection of emerging influenza viruses, scale up national sustainable influenza programmes and develop new tools for disease prevention and control; and
strengthen national capacity to guarantee the safe and secure retention of polioviruses, in line with the global action plan for poliovirus containment (GAPIII), and ensure that facilities that retain polioviruses are fully certified, as outlined in the containment certification scheme.

In producing technical products on norms/standard, data and research, the Secretariat will:
produce standard protocols, guidance and control strategies to prevent, manage, and reduce the health and security impacts of emerging and re-emerging pathogens and biosecurity hazards, including respiratory pathogens and vector-borne diseases;
produce pandemic preparedness plans for unknown diseases (disease X), and guidelines and strategies for accelerating research on emerging pathogens;
produce collaboratively evidence-based pandemic influenza preparedness packages, including guidance, standard operating procedures, training materials and platforms and continue to provide global influenza vaccine strain recommendations to inform the composition of the seasonal (or pandemic) influenza vaccine; and
operationalize the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research, and oversee the biosecurity inspections of the two global repositories of variola virus where the last remaining stocks of live variola virus have been held since the eradication of smallpox. Epidemics and pandemics prevented