Health professionals joint Statement on the involvement of non-State actors in WHO’s governing bodies

World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA)
World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA)
C/o FDI World Dental Federation, Chemin de Joinville 26, 1216 Geneva, Switzerland
info@whpa.org – http://www.whpa.org/
Item 21.2 WHO reform: involvement of non-State
actors in WHO’s governing bodies
Honourable Chair, Distinguished Delegates,
I am speaking on behalf of ICN, part of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA), a
coalition representing over 41 million dentists, pharmacists, nurses, physicians, and
physiotherapists.
We support pre-WHA informal meetings, however, for a true exchange, more notice
must be given, and the agenda items selection must be agreed between non-State
actors (NSAs) and Member States.
After testing constituency statements at the 75th WHA, we strongly encourage
consultation with NSAs before making a final decision on their implementation. The
NSAs of WHPA have combined their statements for many years, however, the
resources and time required to prepare constituency statements using the proposed
processes is disproportionate to their impact. We believe that constituency statements
should not prevent individual statements, must be efficiently organized and that the
selection of agenda items must involve NSAs.
We also request that official WHA side events are kept. These events are useful
platforms for NSAs to engage and collaborate with Member States and WHO,
exchanging expertise on technical matters.
We understand the complexity of WHO governing bodies and reiterate our commitment
to support WHO to improve NSA involvement with these.