INVESTMENT ROUND: IMPACT STORY

Building partnerships for public health

WHO strategically engages youth, civil society, parliaments and the private sector

Maintaining strong partnerships underpins all of WHO’s core functions. With its Transformation agenda, WHO set out to deepen existing relationships and nurture new innovative partnerships.

A more cohesive and long-term approach has been formed, developing engagement strategies which encompass youth, civil society, parliaments and the private sector.

The collaboration and support of the global community is vital to WHO fulfilling its mission to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.

Civil society groups proposed creating a Civil Society Commission to directly advise the Director-General and senior management on relevant issues. Launched in August 2023, its goal is to strengthen dialogue, foster collaboration, and provide recommendations to support WHO on its engagement with civil society.

Working groups tackled specific issues, such as the group tasked with providing feedback on key WHO documents being developed including WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW14). WHO also coordinated targeted consultations on GPW 14 in the lead up to the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly with both civil society and youth.

Sustained commitment and more resources devoted to strengthening partnerships increase the potential for impact both in ways of working and in raising voluntary contributions.

The WHO Youth Council, formed in 2023, builds on engagement around education, and provides a new, dynamic space to share the priorities and experiences of young people. The Council has created an avenue for the concerns of young people to be more meaningfully and systematically incorporated into WHO’s work. 

Engagement with parliaments has been strengthened, with a dedicated WHO focal point to help position health at the core of the parliamentary agenda.

WHO has fostered corporate partnerships with tech companies to provide credible health-related information to the public and fight misinformation. WHO works with sporting bodies through the WHO Sport for Health Programme.

→ Read the full story on how WHO partnerships for health are growing in strength and contributing to WHO’s mission

Promoting partnerships ensures that WHO is working effectively with stakeholders and assists the Organization in performing for health.

Strengthening WHO’s ability to promote partnerships and engagement with health stakeholders is an example of WHO delivering corporate outcome 1: effective WHO health leadership through convening, agenda-setting, partnerships and communications advances the Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14) outcomes and the goal of leaving no one behind.

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