Roadmap for the Global Health and Peace Initiative: The process so far
Overview
The Roadmap for the Global Health and Peace Initiative 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 on the left 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.
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The Roadmap for the Global Health and Peace Initiative (GHPI) has been developed in response to Decision WHA75(24) of the 75th World Health Assembly (2022), 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, if any, for the Initiative.
A draft Roadmap has gone through several iterations as part of the consultation process. The first draft was prepared 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 Seventy-sixth session of the WHA, in May 2023.
Decision WHA 76(12) of the 76th WHA that took note of the fifth version of the Roadmap, also requested WHO’s 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 Seventy-seventh WHA through the 154th session of the Executive Board in 2024, for consideration.
In June 2024, Resolution WHA77.9 was adopted and requests the Director General to continue the following actions, as part of the consultative process of strengthening the Roadmap for the GHPI: evidence gathering; communication and awareness-raising about the GHPI; capacity-building (through technical support and the development of an internal WHO training handbook; and dialogue and partnership. Member States at the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly asked the Director General to report back on progress to the Executive Board at its 158th session in 2026 and for the consideration of further action by Member States; as well as to report to the Eighty-second World Health Assembly in 2029, through the Executive Board, on the status of the Roadmap in view of a possible, consensual, strengthened Roadmap.
The Roadmap for the GHPI aims to provide a framework for the Initiative at global level, defining concepts, establishing principles, setting strategic goals and objectives as well as operational priorities. It also describes the “Health and Peace approach” to programming, which lies at the core of the GHPI. The GHPI is a global initiative of WHO that aims to enhance the existing links between health (and health interventions) and peace.