The Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee (IOAC) for the WHO Health Emergencies (WHE) Programme published its ninth report on 5 May 2021. The report A74/16 is based on the IOAC’s work from May 2020 to April 2021 and will be submitted to the upcoming 74th World Health Assembly.

The Committee noted WHO’s efforts to implement its previous recommendations and the increasingly positive feedback from Member States, partners and staff, on the success of the WHE Programme on the ground. The Committee stressed that WHO has demonstrated its ability to manage multiple emergencies and humanitarian crises concurrently (the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa being an important proof of concept). However, the WHE Programme has suffered from chronic financial and staffing constraints since its establishment and the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that Programme is inadequately equipped to deal with a global pandemic while simultaneously responding to other emergencies. Despite those challenges, WHO has maintained its leadership position in the global response throughout the pandemic, while concurrently managing 65 graded emergencies over the 2020–2021 period.

Background

The WHO Health Emergencies (WHE) Programme was launched on 1 July 2016 in accordance with decision WHA69(9) (2016). At the same time, the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee (IOAC) was also established to monitor the implementation of the WHE Programme, oversee its performance and guide its activities.

The IOAC was established as an open-ended committee to provide accountability, scrutiny and advice.

Since May 2016, it has been fulfilling both advisory and oversight functions to review WHO’s work in outbreaks and emergencies.

In May 2020, on completion of the Committee’s first two terms of office, the Director-General decided to continue its function for a further two years, until May 2022 with revised terms of reference.

More on previous work of the committee and committee members here: https://www.who.int/groups/independent-oversight-and-advisory-committee

The report A74/16 is the ninth report of the IOAC and will be submitted to WHA74. It is based on the IOAC’s work from May 2020 to April 2021.

The main functions of IOAC:

Assess the performance of the Organization’s emergency work in preparedness, prevention, detection and response.

Assess the performance of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (the WHE Programme) key functions in all emergencies, including graded emergencies and infectious disease risks.

Review the adequacy of the WHE Programme’s financing and resourcing.

Provide advice to the Director-General.

Prepare a report on its activities, containing the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations, for submission by the Chair of the Committee to the World Health Assembly.

About WHO

The World Health Organization provides global leadership in public health within the United Nations system. Founded in 1948, WHO works with 194 Member States, across six regions and from more than 150 offices, to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. Our goal for 2019-2023 is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and wellbeing.