WHO SMART Trust
1.1.3 - v1.1.3 International flag

This page is part of the Trust (v1.1.3: Release) based on FHIR (HL7® FHIR® Standard) R4. This is the current published version in its permanent home (it will always be available at this URL). For a full list of available versions, see the Directory of published versions

Concepts Onboarding

The following describes the on-boarding processes for the Global Digital Health Certification Network (GDHCN).

These concepts and the following table contains abbreviations and terminology used throughout this document.

The GDHCN Administrative and Operational Framework should be considered the authoritative source of definitions and concepts in case of any discrepncies.

On-boarding Process Overview

The GDHCN Secretariat manages the on-boarding process and applications of eligible GDHCN Participants to connect as a trusted party to the trust network. Prepared on-boarding records will be handed over to the GDHCN Secretariat with the request to process the technical on-boarding of the trusted party. An organizational and technical successful application results in a confirmation and the GDHCN Participant can connect to the trust network as a trusted party.

Starting in September of 2023, participation will be opened to other eligible participants following the Full On-boarding Process (FOP).

Starting in June of 2023 and running through December 2023, participation in the GDHCN will be open to current participants of the European Union (EU) Digital COVID Certificate (DCC) network following a Transitive Trust On-boarding Process (TTOP). The TTOP is an abbreviated version of the FOP leveraging the notion of transitive trust.

Please review the:

  • Concepts underpinning the description of these on-boarding processes including the general description of the Terms of Participation; and
  • Certificate Governance describing the governance of public key certificates.

On-boarding Application Requirements

The application of the GDHCN Participant must contain at least:

  • One or more TNPSCAs, one TNPTLS and one TNPUP ;
  • A statement about the acceptance of keys and processes of other jurisdictions which are present in the gateway lists; and
  • Contact Persons - Technical, Legal, Business Owner.

Secretariat Tasks

The secretariat must handle the following tasks to establish the on-boarding process:

  • providing a Secure Channel for the GDHCN Participant to deliver secure and trustworthy applications SCA and/or DID information;
  • creation and Securing a Key Pair (Trust Anchor) to sign/confirm on-boarding requests for the gateway;
  • delivering the Public Key of the Trust Anchor to the Gateway Operations; and
  • transmitting On-boarding Requests to the Gateway Operations.

Transitive Trust On-boarding Process

This section describes the steps for the Transitive Trust On-boarding Process (TTOP) to the GDHCN.

As the launch of the WHO Global Digital Health Certification Network, is expected to be 1 June 2023, only the Trusted Services related to issuance and verification of COVID-19 Certificates will be supported. WHO will not have access to any of the data contained within a Verifiable Digital Health Certificate that is issued by a GDHCN Participant under one of these Trusted Services.

Period of Applicability

The TTOP will be in effect at the launch date of the GDHCN on 1 June 2023 and be in effect through December 31, 2023.

Eligibility

At launch of TTOP, for technical reasons, eligibility to join the GDHCN is limited to WHO Member States which are participants in the EU DCC.

Transitive Trust

The principle of Transitive Trust leverages the trusted relationship that the EC has already established among its participants within the EU DCC network and uses that principle as a basis to allow for EU DCC participants to participate in the GDHCN without any overly burdensome on-boarding process. This will be referred to as the WHO-EC transitive trust relationship. The TTOP outlined in this document is intended to serve as a quick and structured mechanism to onboard those eligible GDHCN Participants.

Transitive Trust - Terms of Participation

The requirements in this document will subsume those outlined in the EC DCC Equivalence Decision Annex II Technical procedure to onboard third countries. The following abbreviated Terms of Participation will apply during the TTOP:

  • TOP0 Will leverage current EC processes and share TNPTLS keys with WHO. These TNPTLS keys will be signed by WHO.
  • TOP1 Will be considered fulfilled
  • TOP2 Will be considered fulfilled
  • TOP3 WHO will ask for an assertion/pledge by eligible GDHCN Participants to adhere to the applicable policies but will not be responsible for assessing or enforcing compliance with the policies or regulatory on which trusted services which are operated by participants of the trust network.

Organizational Identify

The organizational identity will be considered established and verified under a WHO-EC Transitive Trust relationship. The EC will provide to WHO necessary contact information for operators, owners or focal points of EC DCC Trust Network participants to facilitate communication.

On-boarding Steps

As permissible, configuration information related to connections of EU DCC participant back-end systems will be provided by the EC to the WHO in order to facilitate establishing connections between EU DCC Trust Network Participants and the WHO Digital Health Trust Network infrastructure. Otherwise, such configuration information will be shared directly by the eligible GDHCN Participant to the WHO

  • An eligible GDHCN Participant should submit its Letter of Application using the Transitive Trust process to gdhcn-secretariat@who.int.
  • Once eligibility is verified the eligible GDHCN Participant will be invited to submit a signed Trust Network Application Form (TO BE DEFINED) gdhcn-secretariat@who.int with:
    • the necessary information to connect to the production environment
    • attestation to comply with the Trust Network Terms of Participation.
  • After positively assessing the application form, WHO will:
    • provide the necessary technical specifications and configuration information to connect to their back-end systems to the WHO TNG
    • invite the GDHCN Participant to register their production certificates and promote them to the production environment.

Full On-boarding Process

This section describes the steps for the Full On-boarding Process (FOP) to the GDHCN

Period of Applicability

The FOP will be in effect in September 2023.

Eligibility

At launch of FOP at launch, for technical reasons, eligibility to join the GDHCN is limited to WHO Member States.

  1. Self-Assessment Countries interested in joining the GDHCN should conduct a self-assessment using the provided checklist to ensure their system complies with the WHO’s specifications. Eligible participants should adopt the same technical specifications described in the On-boarding Checklist . Open source implementations should be utilized when possible.
  2. Official Request If the self-assessment is successful, countries should submit a formal request to the WHO via an official letter expressing their interest in joining the GDHCN. The letter should include a description of the eligible GDHCN Participant’s system and the completed checklist as an annex Upon receipt, the WHO will initiate the procedure to assess the eligible GDHCN Participant’s system and determine if the on-boarding process can begin.
  3. Steps for On-boarding

Organizational Identify

The organizational identity and contact will be established in an offline process by WHO through it’s Member State country offices with appropriate contacts at ministries of health or appropriate public health agency.

On-boarding Steps

  • An eligible GDHCN Participant should complete the On-boarding Checklist to self-assess its readiness for the on-boarding process via the Technical Evaluation Form (TO BE DEFINED).
  • Eligible GDHCN Participants are invited to submit a signed Letter of Application for DDCC by the Full Onboarding Process with:
    • the necessary information to connect to the production environment
    • attestation to comply with the Terms of Participation.
  • After positively assessing the Letter of Application and assessing the Technical Evaluation Form, WHO will:
    • provide the necessary technical specifications and configuration information to connect to their back-end systems to the WHO GDHCN Trust Network Gateway (TNG)
    • invite the GDHCN Participant to register their production certificates and promote them to the production environment.