World Health Organization (WHO)

WHO began when their Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day. We are now more than 7000 people working in 150 country offices, in 6 regional offices and at our headquarters in Geneva.

Our primary role is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations’ system.

These are our main areas of work:

• Health systems
• Promoting health through the life-course
• Noncommunicable diseases
• Communicable diseases
• Corporate services
• Preparedness, surveillance and response.

We support countries as they coordinate the efforts of multiple sectors of the government and partners – including bi- and multilaterals, funds and foundations, civil society organizations and private sector – to attain their health objectives and support their national health policies and strategies.

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Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA69)

The sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA) takes place in Geneva from the 23rd to the 28th of May, that 3500 delegates from WHO’s 194 Member States – including a large proportion of the world’s health ministers - are attending.

It began with a a discussion on WHO reform and a general plenary discussion about “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Over the next days, delegates will discuss a wide range of agenda items, including decisions relating to WHO’s response to health emergencies and the International Health Regulations, noncommunicable diseases and factors that can put people at risk of these diseases – or reduce their level of risk. Important decisions will be made relating to childhood obesity and maternal, child and young child nutrition, as well as air pollution, tobacco control, violence and road safety.

As part of the global drive to support and strengthen health systems, delegates ...

Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA69)

The sixty-ninth World Health Assembly (WHA69) will take place in Geneva from 23-28 May 2016. The Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and its main functions are to determine the policies of the Organization, supervise financial policies, and review and approve the proposed programe budget. The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland.

The topics that will be covered this year are: Responding to health emergencies, Violence Women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, Ageing and health, Maternal, infant and young child nutrition, Childhood obesity, Noncommunicable diseases, 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Health effects of air pollution, Antimicrobial resistance, Poliomyelitis, Health of migrants, Global shortage of medicines, Safety and accessibility of children’s medication, Communicable diseases.

For the full speech see link below. For the news release: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/sixty-ninth-world-health-assembly-opens ...

World Health Assembly approves Framework

From 23 to 28 May 2016, Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) met in Geneva for the Sixty-ninth World Health Assembly and approved with overwhelming support the resolution “strengthening integrated, people-centred health services” that supports the Framework on integrated, people-centred health services (IPCHS).

The Resolution was proposed by Andorra, Chile, Estonia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Luxembourg and Thailand as co-sponsoring countries and received additional inputs from India, Zimbabwe and Canada. During the discussions, the resolution received support and statements from various member states, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Member States of the Americas (represented by Chile), China, Costa Rica, the Nordic and Baltic countries (represented by Estonia), Germany, the Member States of the African region (represented by Guinea), Indonesia, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Slovakia, South Africa, Tanzania, the UK and Zimbabwe.

This important milestone gives the WHO the official mandate ...

#IntegratedCare4People - help us spread the word

Help us spread the word about the Framework on integrated people-centred health services and its web platform by using the hashtag #IntegratedCare4People on your social media accounts.

Suggested hashtags:

Main hashtag: #IntegratedCare4People

Additional hashtags to link to related health conversations: #UHC, #SDGs, #integratedcare, #HealthForAll, #globalhealth, #primaryhealthcare, #healthsystems

Suggested messages:

#IntegratedCare4People is central to #UCH and reaching the #SDGs

What if #health was organized around people's needs rather than diseases? #IntegratedCare4People

Placing people at the heart of #healthservices and #health systems with #IntegratedCare4People

Suggested visuals are available under the URL below.

WHO supports Seychelles on People-Centred Care

WHO supported a two day symposium on 15th and 16th of July 2016 in the Seychelles, which aimed to familiarize health care team with the concepts of patient-centred care, and agree on the application of patient-centred care mechanisms, taking cognizance of the Seychelles context. The symposium was attended by 180 participants, drawn from the respective health professions, policy makers in health, patient care groups, and media stakeholders. The facilitation was led by Dr. Delanyo Dovlo, Director of Health Systems and Services in AFRO and included Nuria Toro Polanco from WHO/Geneva Service Delivery team. 

Seychelles ...

Towards an overarching European health information system

A european health information system (HIS) supports learning between member states through international comparisons. In addition, it informs international policy agendas. Collaboration between the major stakeholders, most importantly the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO-euro), teh European Commission and OECD, is important for member states, as this will contribute to better and more efficiently produced health intelligence. This paper focuses on this "supra-internationa" collaboration.

Defining the global health system and systematically mapping its network of actors

The global health system has faced significant expansion over the past few decades, including continued increase in both the number and diversity of actors operating within it. However, without a stronger understanding of what the global health system encompasses, coordination of actors and resources to addres today´s global health challenges will not be possible

Developing patient safety system using WHO tool in hospitals in Oman

Oman is progressively implementing the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Iniciative (PSFHI), a tool formulated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to achieve optimal patient safety in hospitals. This paper  describes its implementation in selected government and private hospitals in Oman and analyses the performance of four hospitals whose implementations of PSFHI were assessed by WHO. 

Seventy-third World Health Assembly (WHA73)

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO. It is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States and focuses on a specific health agenda prepared by the Executive Board.

This year, the 73rd World Health Assembly is held virtually in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A reduced (de minimis) meeting was held on 18-19 May 2020.

The resumed WHA73 will take place from 9-14 November 2020.

You will be able follow proceedings on WHO webcast.

All documents can be found on the main documents page for the WHA73.

WHO academy (coming in 2021): Revolutionizing lifelong learning in health

A revolution is underway in adult learning. New and more effective methods of conveying knowledge and skills to working people. New technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.  Experiential learning approaches that recognize what trainees already know while offering a more immersive, effective and impactful learning experience.

A new focus on learning for impact and building competencies to make the world a healthier place.  

The establishment of the WHO Academy, based in Lyon, France, is planned for launch in May 2021. The state-of-the-art lifelong learning centre, will apply the latest technologies and adult learning science to meet the learning needs of millions of health workers, policy makers, and WHO staff around the world.

As a centre for delivering advanced digital and classroom training to health workers and others around the world, the WHO Academy will be a game changer for lifelong learning in health. 

Launch of the WHO Academy and the WHO Info mobile applications

WHO has launched the WHO Academy app designed to support health workers during COVID-19, and the WHO Info app designed to inform the general public.

The Academy app, launched by the WHO Academy, World Health Organization’s lifelong learning centre, provides health workers with mobile access to a wealth of COVID-19 knowledge resources, developed by WHO, that include up-to-the-minute guidance, tools, training, and virtual workshops that will help them care for COVID-19 patients and protect themselves.

The application is available for free download from both the Apple App Store  and Google Play Store, in Arabic Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The WHO Info app, with an intuitive user-interface, will give millions of people real-time mobile access to the latest news and developments, disease outbreak updates, and public health emergency information. The app will provide, from the COVID-19 front, the latest WHO initiatives, partnerships, up-to-date data on cases by country ...

HealthBuddy: a new chatbot to engage with communities in Europe and central Asia on COVID-19

HealthBuddy, a multilingual interactive chatbot, is the newest tool to be launched as a resource for countries in Europe and central Asia in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chatbot, developed by WHO/Europe and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), will help countries in the region to access accurate information, and counter misinformation surrounding the virus.

World Health Summit 2022

HEALTH FOR ALL IS THE GOAL – THE WORLD HEALTH SUMMIT 2022 IS THE EVENT

The World Health Organization looks forward to co-organizing this year’s World Health Summit (WHS), 16-18 October in Berlin, Germany.

The 2022 World Health Summit aims to stimulate innovative approaches to health challenges worldwide; reaffirm the position of global health as a key political issue, foster health and well-being of all, and strengthen the international exchange of information. The WHS 2022 will create synergies and combine forces by engaging all relevant global health leaders and stakeholders from all sectors in all regions of the world.

WHS 2022 will focus on “Making the Choice for Health” by reflecting on the most pressing topics, including:

Investment for Health and Well-Being

Climate Change and Planetary Health

Architecture for Pandemic Preparedness

Digital Transformation for Health

Food Systems and Health

Health Systems Resilience and Equity

Global Health for Peace

Programme and ...