Background
The Sustainable Development Goal 17 (SDG17) calls for strengthening the means of implementation and revitalization of the global partnership for sustainable development, through finance, technology, capacity building, trade and systematic issues. More specifically, target 17.17 calls to “Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on the experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships”.
In 2012, the Sixty-Fifth World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted resolution WHA65.6.6 and endorsed the comprehensive implementation plan on maternal, infant and young child nutrition. The resolution requested the Director-General “to develop risk assessment, disclosure and management tools to safeguard against possible conflicts of interest in policy development and implementation of nutrition programmes consistent with WHO’s overall policy and practice.” In decision WHA67/65 of the Sixty-Seventh WHA held in 2014, the Director-General was requested “[…] to convene informal consultations with Member States to complete the work, before the end of 2015, on risk assessment and management tools for conflict of interest in nutrition, for consideration by Member States at the Sixty-Ninth World Health Assembly”.
In response to this request, a technical consultation was convened on 8-9 October 2015 with the aim of supporting efforts to address governance gaps on conflicts of interest in order to safeguard nutrition policy development and implementation at the country level. The technical consultation brought together experts from different constituencies and fields, such as nutrition, health systems, noncommunicable diseases, law, economic and social science, as well as representatives of the six WHO regions. Following up the outcomes of the technical consultation, the Secretariat devised a draft approach on preventing and managing conflicts of interest policy development and implementation of nutrition programmes at country level. The approach proposed a six-step methodology for Member States to consider in their engagement with individuals and non-State actors for preventing and managing conflict of interest in the area of nutrition.
Member States, United Nations representatives and non-State actors provided comments on the draft tools, which are publicly available. The Secretariat developed an amended version of the tools and submitted a report of the Executive Board at its 142nd session in January 2018.
Objective
The Secretariat is organizing an additional informal technical consultation on 4 February 2019 for Member States to further share their experience in engaging with non-State actors in the area of nutrition. This consultation provides an opportunity for discussion among Member States’ representatives to share experiences and discuss the practicality and utility of the proposed tools.
Objectives of the consultation are:
- To share Member States’ experiences on engaging with non-State actors.
- To share current approaches on risk assessment and management of conflicts of interest.
- To learn about the country experience on the WHO tools and identify next steps in this area.
About the consultation
This consultation will include Member States’ representatives only. The meeting will take place at WHO headquarters in Geneva on 4 February 2019. Interpretation services will be provided in the six UN languages. The consultation will
be live cast via WebEx (via a protected link) available for Member States only. A meeting report will be developed.