Designation of a new WHO collaborating centre in Wales
The Policy, Research and International Development Directorate of Public Health Wales has been designated WHO Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being. The Centre will support WHO and its Member States in achieving sustainable development by investing in health and well-being.
The new collaborating centre
Led by Professor Mark Bellis, the Policy, Research and International Development Directorate of Public Health Wales aims to develop and advocate for policies to improve health equitably in Wales and across the world.
As a new collaborating centre for WHO, during the next four years the Directorate will help WHO Member States to mainstream a rights- and evidence-based, equitable approach to investment for health and well-being, and to drive sustainable development at national and subnational levels. It will do so by developing innovative tools for policy-makers, and by collecting and communicating evidence and best practices to steer investment for health and well-being and build resilience.
The result of a long-standing collaboration
Public Health Wales already counts several years of successful collaboration with WHO. Most recently, the Policy, Research and International Development Directorate has been one of the key partners of the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development in the creation of the Health Evidence Network synthesis report 51, entitled Investment for health and well-being: a review of the social return on investment from public health policies to support implementing the Sustainable Development Goals by building on Health 2020. The report gathers evidence through a systematic scoping review of the wider returns for society across all three sustainable development dimensions (social, economic and environmental), by adopting social return on investment as an evaluation method.
“We are delighted to welcome Public Health Wales’ Policy, Research and International Development Directorate as the first WHO collaborating centre in the field of investment for health and well-being. The expertise and high-quality work of our colleagues in Wales have been a valuable asset to WHO over the past years,” said Dr Christoph Hamelmann, Head of the WHO European Office for Investment for Health and Development. “We are looking forward to continuing our joint work, and to supporting countries across the European Region and the world to drive investment for health and well-being in order to achieve a sustainable economy, society and planet.”
About WHO collaborating centres
WHO collaborating centres are institutions designated by the Director-General that form an international collaborative network carrying out activities to support WHO’s programmes at all levels. Typically, such centres are divisions of national research institutes; departments of universities, laboratories, hospitals or health ministries; or national institutions such as academies.
