Developing Indicators for Monitoring the Implementation of the Revised International Health Regulations

In May of 2008, representatives from World Health Organization (WHO) member states met to discuss implementation of the revised International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005).  The initial focus of the conference was to find concensus around the core capacities needed for IHR implementation. The remainder of the conference emphasized the development of indicators to monitor progress on the development of core capacities needed to support implementation of the revised International Health Regulations (2005).  Results from this meeting in terms of: indicator selection and the logic model-based process by which decisions were made will be described.  Anaylsis of the ultimate metrics chosen will be discussed.  An indicator is a description of performance and is a specific, observable, and measurable characteristic or change that is illustrative of the concept to be measured.  Indicators ensure that monitoring and evaluation is a standards-based process and that the selected indicators are a tool to recognize valuable results among multiple, central outcomes.  The indicators chosen will be analyzed against these accepted standards for metrics of this type.