Joint Risk Assessment Operational Tool

In 2019, the tripartite Organizations, FAO, OIE and WHO developed The Tripartite Zoonosis Guide, which was a summation of a global effort of more than 100 experts worldwide to provide guidance and explain best practices for addressing zoonotic diseases in countries. This includes supporting countries in understanding national contexts and developing capacities for strategic technical areas. Three operational tools have been developed to support national staff in these efforts: (1) the Multisectoral Coordination Mechanism OT (MCM OT), (2) the Joint Risk Assessment OT (JRA OT), and (3) the Surveillance and Information Sharing OT (SIS OT). These tools can be used independently or in coordinated efforts to support national capacity for preparedness and response, ultimately linking to existing international policies and frameworks, and supporting efforts for global health security. Specifically, the JRA OT provides additional support on the area of risk assessment to countries implementing the TZG.

Zoonotic diseases, i.e. those affecting animals and humans, need a different, holistic approach to risk assessment engaging all sectors involved in their management and control. Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) brings these sectors together to assess risks from zoonotic disease threats at the animal-human-environmental interface jointly. The JRA operational tool is part of the Tripartite Zoonoses Guide and is intended for use by staff from national ministries responsible for human health, animal health, and the environment, or other government agencies that are responsible for the control and management of zoonotic diseases, in particular epidemiologists, with the close involvement of laboratory staff, risk managers and communication officers. The operational tool presents the principles of JRA and its role in informing policy development. It provides guidance on how to set up a joint qualitative risk assessment process and describes step-by-step how to conduct each component of the process. The Annexes include model documents and templates to support implementation. A JRA provides decision-makers with scientifically sound advice that can be used to inform risk management and communication policies for an effective response to a zoonotic disease threat. Routine JRA supports international regulations, such as International Health Regulations and the OIE standards, by providing a mechanism to effectively address management decisions and communications based on a JRA. When done jointly and across the spectrum of different sectors they are more likely to be relevant and acceptable to all stakeholders, and therefore also more likely to be effective.

Since 2017, the collaborative efforts of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health have led to the development and roll-out of the Joint Risk Assessment (JRA) Operational Tool (OT), a practical instrument linked to the Tripartite Zoonoses Guide. This meeting was held to strengthen JRA using a One Health approach in the WHO South-East Asia Region. In the meeting, the countries shared good practices, lessons and challenges in conducting JRA, practiced the application of the Tripartite JRA OT and identified priority actions to further advance JRA to guide collaborative risk management activities using a One Health approach. The meeting recommended further strengthening JRA at the human–animal–environment interface by engaging multisectoral One Health stakeholders in the respective country context. It was suggested that the actual application of JRA in the country may require a “learning by doing” approach.

The 2018 FAO-OIE-WHO (Tripartite) zoonoses guide, “Taking A Multisectoral, One Health Approach: A Tripartite Guide to Addressing Zoonotic Diseases in Countries” (2018 TZG) is being jointly developed to provide member countries with practical guidance on OH approaches to build national mechanisms for multisectoral coordination, communication, and collaboration to address zoonotic disease threats at the animal-human-environment interface. The 2018 TZG updates and expands on the guidance in the one previous jointly-developed, zoonoses-specific guidance document: the 2008 Tripartite “Zoonotic Diseases: A Guide to Establishing Collaboration between Animal and Human Health Sectors at the Country Level”, developed in WHO South-East Asia Region and Western Pacific Region. The 2018 TZG supports building by countries of the resilience and capacity to address emerging and endemic zoonotic diseases such as avian influenza, rabies, Ebola, and Rift Valley fever, as well as food-borne diseases and antimicrobial resistance, and to minimize their impacts on health, livelihoods, and economies. It additionally supports country efforts to implement WHO International Health Regulations (2005) and OIE international standards, to address gaps identified through external and internal health system evaluations, and to achieve targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2018 TZG provides relevant country ministries and agencies with lessons learned and good practices identified from country-level experiences in taking OH approaches for preparedness, prevention, detection and response to zoonotic disease threats, and provides guidance on multisectoral communication, coordination, and collaboration. It informs on regional and country-level OH activities and relevant unisectoral and multisectoral tools available for countries to use.

Risk Assessment Explore the fundamentals of risk assessment with references to the latest standards, methodologies, and approaches The Second Edition of Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide to Assessing Operational Risks delivers a practical exploration of a wide array of risk assessment tools in the contexts of preliminary hazard analysis, job safety analysis, task analysis, job risk assessment, personnel protective equipment hazard assessment, failure mode and effect analysis, and more. The distinguished authors discuss the latest standards, theories, and methodologies covering the fundamentals of risk assessments, as well as their practical applications for safety, health, and environmental professionals with risk assessment responsibilities. “What If”/Checklist Analysis Methods are included for additional guidance. Now in full color, the book includes interactive exercises, links, videos, and online risk assessment tools that can be immediately applied by working practitioners. The authors have also included: Material that reflects the latest updates to ISO standards, the ASSP Technical Report, and the ANSI Z590.3 Prevention through Design standard New hazard phrases for chemical hazards in the Globally Harmonized System, as well as NIOSH’s new occupational exposure banding tool The new risk-based approach featured in the NAVY IH Field Manual New chapters covering business continuity, causal factors analysis, and layers of protection analysis and barrier analysis An indispensable resource for employed safety professionals in a variety of industries, business leaders and staff personnel with safety responsibilities, and environmental engineers Risk Assessment: A Practical Guide to Assessing Operational Risks is also useful for students in safety, health, and environmental science courses.

Guides the reader through a risk assessment and shows them the proper tools to be used at the various steps in the process This brand new edition of one of the most authoritative books on risk assessment adds ten new chapters to its pages to keep readers up to date with the changes in the types of risk that individuals, businesses, and governments are being exposed to today. It leads readers through a risk assessment and shows them the proper tools to be used at various steps in the process. The book also provides readers with a toolbox of techniques that can be used to aid them in analyzing conceptual designs, completed designs, procedures, and operational risk. Risk Assessment: Tools, Techniques, and Their Applications, Second Edition includes expanded case studies and real life examples; coverage on risk assessment software like SAPPHIRE and RAVEN; and end-of-chapter questions for students. Chapters progress from the concept of risk, through the simple risk assessment techniques, and into the more complex techniques. In addition to discussing the techniques, this book presents them in a form that the readers can readily adapt to their particular situation. Each chapter, where applicable, presents the technique discussed in that chapter and demonstrates how it is used. Expands on case studies and real world examples, so that the reader can see complete examples that demonstrate how each of the techniques can be used in analyzing a range of scenarios Includes 10 new chapters, including Bayesian and Monte Carlo Analyses; Hazard and Operability (HAZOP) Analysis; Threat Assessment Techniques; Cyber Risk Assessment; High Risk Technologies; Enterprise Risk Management Techniques Adds end-of-chapter questions for students, and provides a solutions manual for academic adopters Acts as a practical toolkit that can accompany the practitioner as they perform a risk assessment and allows the reader to identify the right assessment for their situation Presents risk assessment techniques in a form that the readers can readily adapt to their particular situation Risk Assessment: Tools, Techniques, and Their Applications, Second Edition is an important book for professionals that make risk-based decisions for their companies in various industries, including the insurance industry, loss control, forensics, all domains of safety, engineering and technical fields, management science, and decision analysis. It is also an excellent standalone textbook for a risk assessment or a risk management course.

This guidance document develops a methodology for rapid risk assessments undertaken in the initial stages of an event or incident of potential public health concern. It describes an operational tool to facilitate rapid risk assessments for communicable disease incidents at both Member State and European level. The tool comprises information tables and risk-ranking algorithms to give an estimate of risk posed by a threat.

This is the 2024 update of the Compendium of WHO and other UN guidance on health and environment. The Compendium is a comprehensive collection of available WHO and other UN guidance for improving health by creating healthier environments. It provides an overview and easy access of more than 500 actions, and a framework for thinking about health and environment interventions. It covers a broad range of areas such as air pollution, water, sanitation and hygiene, climate change, chemicals, radiation, or food systems. Guidance is classified according to principal sectors involved, level of implementation (national, community, health care), the type of instrument (taxes, infrastructure etc.) and the category of evidence. The Compendium compiles existing guidance from hundreds of documents in a simple and systematized format. To ensure the most up-to-date information is provided to the end users, the Compendium is updated on a regular basis and incorporates the latest major WHO or other UN guidance on health and environment. The target audience includes any decision-makers with relevance to health and environment, and those assisting them (such as mayors, staff in ministries, UN country staff etc.). The Compendium has been prepared by WHO in cooperation with UN Environment, UNDP and UNICEF.

Joint doctrine is deficient in identifying a specific method of assessing and managing risk when applying the test of acceptability to joint operation plans. This deficiency should be remedied with the adoption of Operational Risk Management (ORM), an existing process which would provide operational commanders a tool for making smarter risk decisions. Improved planning and execution of joint combat and non-combat operations would result in increased mission effectiveness and better progress toward the desired strategic end-state. ORM is an analytical process to improve risk assessment and better manage operational risk. ORM is composed of five steps: identifying hazards, making risk assessments, making risk decisions, implementing controls, and supervising effectiveness. The ORM process is performed on a time-critical, deliberate, or in-depth level depending on the time available. Four principles which guide the employment of ORM are to accept risk when benefits outweigh the cost, accept no unnecessary risk, anticipate and manage risk by planning, and make risk decisions at the right level. Commanders manage risk wisely to conserve combat power for bold execution of joint operations plans. The paper concludes that Operational Risk Management should be formally adopted into the deliberate and crisis action joint planning processes. Through training, ORM can become ingrained and intuitive to military commanders at the operational level. Better management of operational risk will improve mission effectiveness of joint forces while supporting national foreign policy and strategy in operations around the globe.