A71/5 Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Overview

The genesis of the WHO emergency reform programme was the hard lessons learned from the West Africa Ebola outbreak and the perceived initial dysfunctional response. The WHE Programme was established as a determined effort to reposition WHO as a UN specialized agency with operational functions, while maintaining its leadership in technical expertise. The performance of the WHE Programme over the past 20 months has served as an important proof of concept for WHO’s potential impact in outbreaks and emergencies. The WHE programme has demonstrated its importance in stopping the spread of infectious pathogens beyond national boundaries, and leading the health response in numerous humanitarian crises. 41.

On the basis of its monitoring and review between the official launch of the WHE Programme in July 2016 and the end of March 2018, the IOAC concludes that WHO has demonstrated important progress towards reaching the key milestones set out in document A69/30 and that the WHE Programme has a track record of delivery that aligns with the principles of a single programme, and has brought improved speed and predictability to WHO’s work in emergencies. The IOAC assesses that the WHE Programme has put in place the basic structures and systems to guard against the sort of catastrophic failure that occurred with the West Africa Ebola outbreak, but considerable progress is still needed. Sustaining and institutionalizing this progress will require ongoing shared effort among Member States, the WHO Secretariat and partners. A71/5 Annex 12 42.

The IOAC is encouraged to see that WHO senior management has included the need to improve the Organization’s administrative system and business processes in the transformation agenda and is looking for solutions at a corporate level. The experiences of implementing the WHE Programme reforms should be leveraged in pursuing the transformation of WHO, the success of which, in turn, could help the WHE Programme to fully realize its ambitions. The IOAC will continue to oversee the development and institutionalization of the WHE programme over the next two years on behalf of Member States, and will continue to make recommendations to strengthen the Programme.