Proposed New Technical Committee to Streamline Functioning of WHO Governing Bodies [EB154 PRIMER]

Newsletter Edition #207 [The Files In-Depth]

Hi,

Strategy and financing are intertwined for any organization. But this is especially crucial for public-funded institutions whose activities have implications for people’s health.

WHO member states mean business, and are paying more attention on how WHO raises resources and manages its money. This 75 year old institution is at the cusp of significant operational reforms.

In today’s edition, we bring you an update on some of the proposals that will be considered at next week’s Executive Board meeting. We look at some of the nuts and bolts of governance and financing, and how these processes are tightly interlinked.

In case you missed our update on financing from last week, see here: WHO Seeks to Raise US$7 Billion in First Ever Investment Round in 2024, Executive Board to Consider Proposal This Month.

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Until later.

Best,

Priti

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I. STORY OF THE WEEK [EB154 PRIMER]

Proposal For New Technical Committee to Streamline Functioning of WHO Governing Bodies

WHO punches above its weight. Though hamstrung by a relatively small budget compared to its mandate, the UN’s only technical agency works across multiple normative and operational areas simultaneously.

Member states of WHO want to make this organization nimbler, notwithstanding the large UN bureaucracy that it really is.

A number of governance reforms directly linked to financing have been set in motion, flowing from the work towards sustainable financing of WHO.

From a new technical committee to streamline functioning of governing bodies, to better reporting requirements, from budgetary implications of new initiatives to closer scrutiny of top leadership, a slew of these proposals changes is now being discussed. Some stakeholders worry that in the name of efficiency, proposals could undermine the multilateral nature of the organization. But many admit an overhaul of how WHO conducts its business is long overdue.

At the 154th Executive Board meeting next week, these technical proposals will be taken up. This story focuses on these reforms-in-the-making that have emerged from the Agile Member States Task Group on Strengthening WHO’s Budgetary, Programmatic and Financing Governance (AMSTG). (These proposals were taken up at the closed-door meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the EB this week)

Image Credit: Photo by Edward Jenner, Pexels