Strengthening Public Health Response to COVID-19 through Policy Learning and Policy Transfer

Disruption of the public health systems was an inevitable result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which put governments under severe pressure to make quick decisions in response to the policy challenges they faced. The virus created a state of confusion not only among countries and their governments but also across other organizations, including the international community and its organizations. Cross-country learning by sharing experiences and tacit knowledge was one critical approach for governments across the world to learn from and to follow, since the pandemic requires a deeper understanding of policy processes to be able to face those challenges. This chapter, therefore, focused on the ‘policy' implications of different countries' responses, with a special focus on WHO policies and guidelines and how they have been used and adapted in different contexts. The overall aim was to draw lessons for governments and organizations to strengthen the public health system during and post COVID-19 and any future pandemics.