There are tensions between World Health Organization (WHO) member states about how to approach the final negotiations on the pandemic agreement – an annex on Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS), according to Precious Matsoso, who co-chaired the negotiations. “There’s an argument about whether you invite experts to start working on a technical document […] Continue reading ->
Saima Wazed, WHO’s South East Asia Regional is attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, and presiding over official events, even while her home country, Bangladesh, has a warrant outstanding for her arrest. The warrant follows the filing of charges in March against Wazed in March by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) alleging fraud, forgery and […] Continue reading ->
In a surprise appearance Tuesday before WHO member states via pre-recorded video, new US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr extended a kind of olive branch to the World Health Organization, calling for “a new era of international health cooperation, free from political influence and corporate bias.” While Kennedy did not say […] Continue reading ->
Dr Mohamed Yakub Janabi, of Tanzania, was elected as the new African Region nominee for Regional Director, in a special meeting of the WHO African Regional Committee on Sunday – replacing fellow Tanzanian, RD-elect Dr Faustine Ndugulile, who died suddenly in November, 2024. The WHO Executive Board will be asked to approve Janabi’s nomination at […] Continue reading ->
Samira Asma, assistant director of Data, Analytics and Delivery since 2020, is reportedly leaving WHO in the first of an expected departure of five senior leadership team members as the Organisation sets out to dramatically shrinks its Geneva footprint and staffing. Of the existing 11-member team, only six would remain, if a plan shared by […] Continue reading ->
NEW DELHI – The theme was “Scaling Access to Ensure Health Equity”, but that hardly reflected the intense concerns raised at the first World Health Summit regional meeting with the storm of Trump administration’s cutbacks and closures of global health programmes since January. Traditional medicine, climate and health, data transparency, and the role of artificial […] Continue reading ->
The US-based Boston Consulting Group has been working with WHO’s senior leadership, under contract, to develop the major reorganization and cost-saving plan, now pending final presentation to staff and member states next week, Health Policy Watch has learned. Members of the Staff Association Committee confirmed to WHO staff members on Thursday, that BCG has been […] Continue reading ->
Maternal mortality rates have dropped by 40% since 2000, largely due to improved access to essential health services. But WHO officials warn that the recent, deep cuts to international aid could be as disruptive as the COVID-19 pandemic, if not more so, to a woman’s chances of surviving pregnancy and childbirth. And in 2023, more […] Continue reading ->
CARTAGENA, Colombia — “When I met with taxi drivers in Abu Dhabi about the pollution from their cars, they told me to talk to the desert,” recalled Dr George Thurston, director of New York University’s research program on the health impacts of ambient and occupational air pollution. The taxi drivers’ retort points to a global […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s budget crisis is even bigger than previously thought. The global health organization is short nearly $1.9 billion from a planned $4.2 billion budget for 2026-27, along with a $600 million deficit through end-2025, senior WHO officials revealed at a global ‘Town Hall’ meeting of WHO staff on Tuesday, heard by Health Policy Watch. The […] Continue reading ->