The Roadmap for the Global Health and Peace Initiative (GHPI) has been revised several times as part of an ongoing consultative process. The Roadmap as noted by the 76th World Health Assembly (WHA) (Version 5, dated 25 May 2023) is accessible at the bottom of this page, and incorporates feedback received during informal consultations carried out ahead of - and during - the Seventy-sixth session of the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2023. This, however, is not a ‘final’ version of the Roadmap, as the latter is currently considered a ‘living document’. (see below).
Overview
The purpose of the Roadmap is to provide a framework for the GHPI at global level. It defines concepts, establishes principles, and sets strategic objectives associated with the Initiative, and maps initial operational priorities. It offers a foundation for WHO to institutionalize and operationalize the GHPI within its own programming and according to its mandate. It also describes the “Health and Peace Approach” to programming, which lies at the core of the GHPI.
The Roadmap contains an implementation framework that has identified policy priorities and objectives categorized into six workstreams:
- Evidence generation through research and analysis;
- Development of a strategic and operational framework;
- Advocacy and awareness-raising;
- Capacity-building;
- Partnership development; and
- Mainstreaming of the Health and Peace Approach.
Consultations and Member States’ decisions on the GHPI and the Roadmap
The Global Health and Peace Initiative was launched in November 2019 following a multilateral consultation in Geneva attended by more than 50 representatives from 24 countries and partners.
The Initiative was put on the agenda of the 150th session of WHO’s Executive Board (EB) and 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2022. Ahead of that in December 2021, WHO’s Director-General (DG) submitted a report (EB150/20) on the aims, workstreams, and ways forward for the GHPI. WHO Member States noted that report through Decision EB150(5) and Decision WHA75(24), which requested that WHO develop, in full consultation with Member States and Observers, and in full collaboration with other organizations of the United Nations system and relevant non-State actors in official relations with WHO, a Roadmap for the Global Health and Peace Initiative for consideration by the 76th World Health Assembly through the 152nd session of the Executive Board in 2023.
As requested in Decision WHA75(24), WHO has developed a Roadmap through a multi-stakeholder consultation process between August 2022 and November 2023.
The Roadmap drafting process
The draft Roadmap has gone through several iterations as part of the consultation process. The first draft was prepared by the WHO Secretariat in September 2022. The second draft, dated December 2022, incorporated feedback received from Member States and Observers during a first round of consultations carried out in late 2022 and was discussed at the 152nd session of the Executive Board in February 2023. Based on comments by Member States and Observers at the Executive Board meeting, a third draft of the Roadmap was prepared, dated March 2023, and formed the basis for consultations held in March 2023. These consultations led to another revision of the Roadmap, which produced version 4, published in early May 2023. The fifth draft is the most recent version of the Roadmap and was taken note of by WHO Member States at the 76th WHA. The text was revised under the leadership of Switzerland on the basis of informal consultations carried out with other Member States ahead of, and during the 76th session of the WHA, in May 2023.
In May 2023, Decision WHA 76(12) of the 76th World Health Assembly took note of the fifth version of the Roadmap for the GHPI and requested the Director-General to report on progress made on strengthening the Roadmap, as a living document, through consultations with Member States and observers and other stakeholders, as decided by Member States, to the 77th World Health Assembly.
Three consultations were held with WHOs Member States, Observers and other stakeholders between WHA 76 and WHA 77, from September to November 2023.
In May 2024, Resolution WHA 77.9 of the 77th WHA was adopted by WHO’s Member States. It requests the WHO Secretariat to continue gathering evidence, raising awareness about the initiative, capacity building, continuing dialogue and working with partners on the GHPI while strengthening the Roadmap in consultation with the various stakeholders. Member States requested the Director General to report back on progress to the Executive Board at its 158th session in 2026; as well as to report to the 62nd World Health Assembly in 2029, through the Executive Board, on the status of the Roadmap in view of a possible, consensual, strengthened Roadmap.