Strategic action plan on polio transition: report by the Director-General

Overview

The Seventieth World Health Assembly in May 2017 adopted decision WHA70(9) on poliomyelitis: polio transition planning, in which the Director-General was requested, inter alia, to develop a strategic action plan on polio transition by the end of 2017, to be submitted for consideration by the Seventy-first World Health Assembly, through the Executive Board at its 142nd session. The request specified the clear identification of the capacities and assets, especially at country level, that are required to sustain progress in other programmatic areas and to maintain a polio-free world after eradication. The Health Assembly also requested a detailed costing of the capacities and polio-funded assets and a report on the efforts to mobilize the funding for transitioning capacities and assets that are currently financed by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative into the programme budget. The Executive Board, after considering a report on polio transition planning,1 recalled this request in its decision EB142(2) (2018). This report responds to these requests.

The proposed draft strategic action plan has a five-year scope of work, is aligned with the draft thirteenth general programme of work, 2019−2023, and aims to strengthen country capacity around the core goals of that programme of work in order to achieve universal health coverage and enhance global health security.