The National Institute for Minamata Disease in Japan is the only organization in the world specializing in research on the health effects of mercury compounds. The Victorian Health Promotion Foundation in Australia is a pioneer in health promotion. The National Institute of Food and Drug Safety Evaluation in the Republic of Korea has extensive expertise in regulatory systems. And the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in China work to ensure that vaccines are safe and of high quality.
What do these specialized institutes have in common? They are among the nearly 200 specialized organizations that form the network of WHO collaborating centres. Based in 10 Member States in the Western Pacific Region, these centres provide strategic support for WHO’s work. They help develop and strengthen the institutional capacity of countries in the Region.
Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, concurs: “WHO collaborating centres are indispensable partners in advancing our work. They greatly expand the expertise available to WHO and its Member States in addressing pressing public health issues.”
Despite the vast potential of collaborating centres, these partnerships have sometimes been vague or out of sync with WHO priorities and ways of working. A key step towards strengthening these partnerships began in November 2014 with the First Regional Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres in the Western Pacific, held at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific in Manila. It brought together 181 participants from 135 centres in the first such gathering of collaborating centres in any WHO region.
Since then, WHO has worked to sharpen engagement with improved terms of reference that match collaborating centre capacities with WHO workplans, as well as those of their parent institutions. Processes of designation, redesignation, termination and evaluation of collaborating centres in the Region also have been improved.
In 2016, the Second Regional Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres in the Western Pacific was an even greater success than the first forum. Greater participation led to new opportunities to further strengthen the role of collaborating centres in WHO. The second forum also opened the door for the centres to work across regions and technical programmes, epitomizing the multisectoral approach called for in the Sustainable Development Goals.
China now hosts 65 collaborating centres, Australia has 49, Japan has 35, and the Republic of Korea has 22. In the Western Pacific Region, collaborating centres are also based in Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Viet Nam. Globally, the network is composed of more than 800 WHO collaborating centres in 80 countries.
The Third Regional Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres in the Western Pacific will take place in November 2018.