While three independent review panels concur that the response of the World Health Organization (WHO) to COVID-19 was inadequate, member states made slow progress in charting better alternatives at the executive board meeting on Wednesday. WHO members are considering three main proposals to improve the global body’s future pandemic preparedness:  Setting up a Standing Committee […] Continue reading ->
Despite earlier disruption from Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus received overwhelming support for his nomination for a second term as World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General from the body’s executive board on Tuesday. As the only nominee, Tedros is guaranteed to be re-elected at the next World Health Assembly in May. All WHO regions expressed their […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Organization’s executive board meets this week, two major issues – reforming its finances and pandemic response – continue to defy easy consensus.   A handful of powerful countries, including but not limited to the United States, remain hesitant over a plan to bolster the World Health Organization’s (WHO) finances by increasing member […] Continue reading ->
China wants to delete language supporting rapid World Health Organization (WHO) access to outbreak sites in future pandemics from a critical document that maps out a way forward in future pandemics, a diplomatic source has told Health Policy Watch. This emerged at Monday’s start of a three-day meeting in Geneva of the global body’s Working […] Continue reading ->
On Universal Health Coverage Day – an appeal to food and health advocates to shape an agenda for ‘Universal Nutrition Coverage’ including joined-up solutions that promote sustainable agro-ecosystems producing healthier foods for people with co-benefits for the planet. Every year on December 12, the health community marks Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day. While the technical […] Continue reading ->
The way in which WHO is financed is “fundamentally rotten” with excessive financial dependence on just a handful of rich countries and a few private donors.  But Germany’s deputy head of global health in the Ministry of Health, Björn Kümmel, is hopeful that WHO member states may turn course in coming months – and reclaim […] Continue reading ->