Dr Eunyoung Ko

The founding vision of WHO is a world in which all people attain the highest possible standard of health and well-being. The WHO mission is to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. WHO works with a commitment to human rights, universality and equity, based on the principles espoused in the WHO Constitution.

Core functions of WHO include: providing leadership on matters crucial to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed; shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation and dissemination of valuable knowledge; setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their implementation; articulating ethical and evidence- based policy options; providing technical support to catalyse changes; building sustainable institutional capacity; and monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.

The mission of WHO in the Philippines is to support the Government to achieve universal health coverage with all people having access to high-quality health services, within the context of the country’s needs and challenges in transitioning to middle-income status.

In order to provide effective support, the WHO country office leverages the three levels of the Organization: to focus support where it can make a difference; to place the right people in the right places; to engage partners effectively; to enhance communications; and to improve operational intelligence.

Priorities of WHO

WHO’s general programme of work (GPW) sets medium-term priorities and strategies of the Organization. The World Health Assembly in May 2018 is expected to approve the 13th general programme of work, covering the period 2019–2023. It encompasses a set of three interconnected strategic priorities, strategic shifts and organizational shifts, as well as 10 outcomes to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. The three strategic priorities are:

Universal health coverage: 1 billion more people benefitting from universal health coverage
Health emergencies: 1 billion more people better protected from health emergencies
Healthier populations: 1 billion more people enjoying better health and well-being

Priorities of WHO in the Philippines

The WHO Country Office works with the Philippines’ Department of Health in achieving good health for the citizenry and focus on 5 strategic priorities for WHO collaboration with the Philippines:

Save lives
Promote well-being
Protect health
Optimize the health system
Use platforms for health

WHO Representative in the Philippines

Dr Ko has been serving as the Acting World Health Organization (WHO) Representative to the Philippines since June 2025, following her appointment as Deputy WHO Representative in January. She is a Korean paediatrician and public health practitioner with experience in humanitarian medical aid, maternal and child health and primary health care programmes.

Before moving to the Philippines, Dr Ko was WHO’s Country Liaison Officer in Vanuatu 2021-2024. She served as WHO’s Country Liaison Officer in the Northern Pacific 2016-2021, where she provided policy and technical advice to the ministries of health and supported key public health initiatives in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. From 2012 to 2016, Dr Ko led the maternal and child health programme in the WHO office in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Dr Ko first joined WHO Lao PDR in 2010 through a secondment by the Korea Foundation for International Health Care (KOFIH), following her earlier international work with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in West Africa and Haiti.

Dr Ko is a board-certified paediatrician with a Doctor of Medicine degree from Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Republic of Korea. In 2009, she earned a Master’s of Public Health degree in epidemiology from Seoul National University.