WHO regions and partners
Important partners of WHO in occupational health include the International Labour Organization(ILO), the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), the International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA), and the International Ergonomics Association (IEA). Some details of the ILO partnership are provided in the following pages, in other cases the reader is referred to the partner's webpage.
Regional Offices
WHO has six Regional Offices and 192 Member States. It is clear that countries and health ministries in all regions recognize the importance of occupational health as a foundation stone of public health, despite many problems in the recruitment and training of staff and the financing of Occupational Health and Safety programmes. Innovative approaches such as the “GPHESME” in the WHO Regional Office for Europe and the “Healthy Workplaces Initiative” in the Regional Office for the Western Pacific provide important experiences and models to guide future work.
International Labour Office
A special co-operative arrangement exists between the WHO and ILO in Occupational Health and Safety. The Thirteenth Session of the Joint ILO/WHO Committee on Occupational Health was held at the ILO headquarters in Geneva, in December 2003. The outcomes of the meeting are available.