Management and administration enabling WHO to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable

Strengthened management and administration enable the Organization to fulfil its mission of promoting health, keeping the world safe and serving the vulnerable. The ongoing transformation of management administration has shown its impact in the Organization’s rapid, sustained response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Organization’s capacity to deliver, including its already stretched management and administration, was tested by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has succeeded in deploying an unprecedented workforce to provide technical support in countries and delivering supplies where markets have failed, while ensuring that the principles of equity and solidarity are upheld. The more than 150 WHO offices continue to be operational in this difficult situation, providing direct, close support to countries. At the same time, it is responding to other health emergencies in fragile, conflict-affected, vulnerable settings and supporting governments and partners to sustain or restore basic services.

The impact of the transformation in management and administration was clear in areas including finance, human resources, information technology, staff health and well-being. Although more improvements are necessary, the effects of some changes were seen, such as in information technology, agile workforce approaches, safer working environments for the WHO workforce and more efficient supply chains. Every facet of management and administration has been tested and found to be able to adapt rapidly to changing situations.

Protecting staff to ensure a safer working environment was key to sustaining the Organizations operations in the field and supporting countries. Flexible and virtual working arrangements were immediately adopted to address rapidly changing situations in duty stations. A multi-layered approach consisting of infection prevention and control measures and increased communication and guidance to staff was established by alignment with the epidemiological situations in countries. The Secretariat prioritized the health and safety of each staff member in order to minimize the risk of introducing COVID-19 into the workplace.

During 2020, medical services were enhanced to support both WHO and United Nations staff, including for mental health in relation to COVID-19 response. Although there was already collaboration among the three levels of the Organization, better alignment within WHO and throughout the United Nations system was required for the global response. A system-wide medical evacuation task force was established in mid-April 2020 at the request of the United Nations Secretary-Genera, and WHO worked with the World Food Programme to build a hospital with intensive care capacity in Accra, Ghana, for international personnel and their families. Since May 2020, 231 medical evacuations for COVID-19 have been carried out in 51 countries.

Although ensuring the safety and well-being of staff affected operations in more than 150 WHO offices, support to Member States was unhindered. The Organization’s management and administration ensured continuation of its governance functions, including conducting all the required governing body meetings and consultations and engaging Member States in governance.

WHO data security risks were amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, and, building on previous work, cybersecurity preparedness was increased and is now proceeding to the highest levels. Investment in cybersecurity has been increased, a security operations centre has been established, and an “endpoint detection and response” system is being introduced progressively throughout the Organization.

As COVID-19 began to spread, global supply chains for commodities essential for the response were severely strained. Some supply chains broke down, prices increased, and normal market conditions collapsed. The WHO management and administration established a COVID-19 supply chain system to harness the technical expertise, knowledge of markets and procurement, joint purchasing power and logistical expertise of WHO and United Nations partner agencies, manufacturers, suppliers and Member States.

The Secretariat built a more resilient supply chain, broadened sourcing options, engaged with global public and private sector stakeholders, facilitated purchase by global consortia, secured supply pipelines and established quality assurance procedures to ensure central control and standardization of emergency supplies in terms of product safety, effectiveness and efficacy. The Secretariat remained operational beyond regular working hours to fast-track procedures and approval processes while mitigating risks and addressing challenges. A new supply module was developed for the next emergency response, which supports the entire supply chain.

The Organization not only procured supplies for the COVID-19 pandemic response but also maintained its work in supporting countries in sustaining and restoring services. In 2020, the cost of procurement of non-emergency goods and services increased by 8%, from US$ 893.17 million to US$ 967.6 million, while the total cost of COVID-19-related supplies and equipment for Member States and WHO offices and partners was US$ 750.2 million.

WHO’s management and administration is already looking forward, to ensure that the Organization evolves in line with future needs. In line with the goal of continued improvement in administrative efficiency, the Secretariat has launched a project to modernize administrative processes and tools by replacing the current system for resource planning, and a proposal for the next-generation system has been completed. The new system will ensure that WHO has a fully integrated, standardized, automated, trackable, transparent functional system to maximize its impact while ensuring greater ​efficiency and effectiveness.

To find progress on health outcome indicators, visit the World health statistics