Belgium
Partner in global health
Midwife Rahmi performs a prenatal ultrasound to check the health of Inawati's baby at the Pala Island Village Health Post, South Sulawesi, Indonesia
This content was last updated on 28 February 2025.
A champion of good donorship
The Government of Belgium has taken a leading role in global health, working together with WHO to achieve equitable access to health care for all people everywhere, especially those who are most vulnerable.
The Federal government of Belgium and Flemish and Wallon governments have demonstrated a long-term commitment to support the following global health priorities: reinforcing health systems and universal health coverage, ensuring equitable access to quality health products including vaccine equity such as the mRNA technical transfer hub; the fight against and research to communicable diseases and neglected tropical diseases, particularly African trypanosomiasis; and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Belgium is a strong supporter of the WHO Health Technology Access Programme (HTAP), successor of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP initiative), that is set up to facilitate timely, equitable and affordable access of wider range of health products by boosting their supply through geo-diversified production.
In addition to its support to technical programmes, Belgium is a steadfast defender of WHO’s agenda to ensure that the Organization is fit for purpose and well resourced to achieve the ambitious Fourteenth WHO General Programme of Work calling for healthy lives and well-being for all ages.
Dr Kenneth Kabali, WHO Field Coordinator for Busoga Sub-region sensitizes the community on mpox in Mayuge district, Eastern Uganda.
A leader in flexible funding
The Government of Belgium is committed to providing core voluntary funds in the form of flexible funding to allow the Organization to be more agile and respond rapidly to the everchanging public health landscape. The Organization, through flexible funding, has been able to adapt and respond to changing circumstances, ensuring that it can sustain progress towards achieving the desired results of the Programme budget. This adaptability has been instrumental in driving public health improvements.
Belgium consolidates its position as the eighth largest contributor of flexible funding in the 2022–2023 biennium, also ranking as WHO's thirteenth largest donor to thematic funding in the same period. Belgium has also supported a first increase of WHO assessed contribution, endorsing WHO's sustainable financing approach that would ensure predictable financing, help minimize the dependence on a narrow donor base, and allow resources to be aligned to the Programme Budget.
Belgium’s contributions come from the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (DGD), the Federal Service of Public Health (to support the WHO European Region) and the Flemish Government who, together with DGD, supports maternal and child health.
The Ministry of Development Cooperation increased Belgium’s voluntary contribution to WHO for reinforcing health systems and neglected tropical disease research and elimination.
With the vision that development aid fuels equity and reduces the gap between rich and poor, Belgium has committed to a voluntary multiannual contribution of €600 000 per year for a total of €2.4 million for tropical disease research (TDR Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases) for the period 2021–2024.
In addition, in December 2021 the Government of Belgium and WHO signed a new €8 million multiyear contribution agreement for the period 2021–2025, to support increasing global equitable access to health products and health technologies globally.
Belgium has been working side by side with WHO during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the Global Goal Summit on 27 June 2020, Belgium committed to support the COVID-19 response with €4 million to the Universal Health Coverage Partnership in support of health systems in some fragile states.
Top public health priorities
- Health systems strengthening and universal health coverage
- Access to medicines
- Sexual and reproductive health and rights
- Child and newborn health
- Neglected tropical diseases, particularly African trypanosomiasis.
Health systems strengthening and universal health coverage
Belgium supports the WHO UHC-Partnership, which helps more than 120 countries to strengthen their health systems, with a particular focus on primary health care. Through the UHC-Partnership, more than 140 health policy advisers deployed in WHO country offices provide day-to-day support to countries on health systems, including governance, financing, health workforce, access to medicines, packages of services and health information systems, according to national priorities.
In addition, the Belgian Federal Public Service, Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment hosts in Brussels and supports financially the WHO European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (approximately €500 000 per year) which leads evidence-based health policymaking through a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the dynamics of health care systems in Europe.
Mrs Say Sa with her Baby principal of health centre Kok Chuk, Cambodia.
Access to medicines
In December 2021, the Government of Belgium and WHO signed a €8 million multiyear contribution agreement for the period 2021–2025 to support increasing global equitable access to health products and health technologies. Over the past three years, the grant has achieved significant progress. The initiative has facilitated technology transfer and sustainable local production through the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme (mRNA TT) and the Health Technology Access Programme (HTAP), the successor of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP).
Preclinical studies have validated the immunogenicity, efficacy and safety of the Afrigen technology platform, demonstrating that the mRNA platform is effective. A key milestone in the project was the successful transfer of this technology from Afrigen to Biovac at the beginning of 2024, a crucial step towards empowering low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) to independently produce vaccines. The technology transfer will extend to the 14 programme partners, with completion expected by the end of 2025.
Completing the operating model of the mRNA TT Programme, HTAP has secured a license which is expected to benefit sublicensed manufacturers by expanding market opportunities and enabling the manufacture of diagnostics for COVID-19 but also for other diseases such as HIV, malaria, syphilis, and hepatitis C.
Both programmes have evolved post-pandemic and now operate as complementary models under a unified HTAP mission, workplan and programme management framework. Additionally, the implementation of the mRNA TT Programme is reinforced by the efforts on regulatory systems strengthening, local production and assistance and the access 'ecosystem' (i.e., fair pricing, List of Essential Medicines, Essential Diagnostics List, List of Priority Medical Devices, and controlled medicines), which are funded by the same Belgium-supported grant.
Thanks to the Belgian grant, WHO has built a strong foundation to continue implementing these innovative approaches throughout 2025 – the final year of the grant.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights
Access to sexual and reproductive health services is a human right and should be available to all people throughout their lives, as part of ensuring universal health coverage. This contributes to improved health outcomes, and also to gender equality and wider development.
The challenges remain daunting. Ill-health from causes related to sexuality and reproduction remains a major cause of preventable death, disability and suffering: 164 million women of reproductive age (15–49 years) worldwide have an unmet need for modern contraception, while 45% of all abortions globally remain unsafe.
With support from Belgium, including the Government of Flanders, WHO is making a difference. Research by the Special Programme in Human Reproduction (HRP), housed by WHO, leads global research on SRHR, generating evidence to inform policies and improve reproductive health outcomes. At Ghent University, the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH) is recognized as WHO collaborating centre and supports WHO's mission through research, training, and advocacy on key SRHR issues, including sexual violence, maternal and newborn health, and family planning, while also coordinating the Academic Network for SRHR Policy (ANSER) and the inter-university Master in Global Health.
For instance, a large-scale trial with institutions in India, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, and Uganda to simplify pre-eclampsia treatment and improve maternal health; an inter-disciplinary research supports better understanding of the impact of misinformation in digital spaces, and collaboration with the Ministry of Health in Guinea enabled the country to incorporate WHO's guidelines on person-centred communications for preventing female genital mutilation (FGM) into the training curricula for healthcare providers.
Read more about Sexual and Reproductive Health
Explore the work of the Human Reproduction Programme
Elisabeth Ali, 25, provides skin-to-skin care to her LBW baby at a KMC unit at Felege Hiwot Hospital in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia on 25 March 2021.
Neglected tropical diseases, particularly African trypanosomiasis
As a signatory of the Kigali Declaration on NTDs, Belgium has been a strong advocate of integrating the prevention and treatment of infectious and neglected tropical diseases within existing health care systems and to strengthen those health systems as a fundamental approach to stopping the spread of new pathogens.
To help achieve the targets of the WHO roadmap for NTDs, Belgium has committed to a core voluntary multiannual contribution of €16 million. Belgium also contributed €0.6 million per year for a total of €2.4 million to the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) for the period 2021–2024.
Belgium is a strong supporter of WHO's TDR Strategy 2024–2029, which addresses critical global health challenges such as the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases and the impact of climate change on the spread of these diseases.
A Human African Trypanosomiasis mobile unit in Côte d’Ivoire.
WHO collaborating centres in Belgium
There are eight WHO collaborating centres in Belgium, working on a wide range of public health challenges:
- WHO Collaborating Centre for the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, University of Antwerp
- WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, Ghent University
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Research on Sexual and Reproductive Health, Ghent University
- WHO Collaborating Centre for the monitoring of antheliminthic drug efficacy for soil-transmitted helminthiasis, Ghent University
- WHO Collaborating Centre for HIV/AIDS Diagnostics and Laboratory Support, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training on African Tripanosomiasis diagnostics, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Human Resources for Health Research and Policy, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Conditions and Aging, University of Liege.
