Partnerships hosted by WHO/Europe
WHO/Europe is the host, as well as a member, of three partnerships:
- the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies;
- HEPA Europe (European network for the promotion of health-enhancing physical activity); and
- the European Forum of National Nursing and Midwifery Associations (EFNNMA).
In recent years, WHO’s involvement in partnerships and similar collaborative arrangements for health has grown considerably. The institutional arrangements for the growing number of partnerships have become increasingly complex.
In 2010, the Sixty-third World Health Assembly endorsed a new partnership policy to establish a more systematic approach to partnerships, and to decrease the burden that partnership work may impose on national administrations, the confusion of technical roles of partners and the multiplicity of governance arrangements. The policy guides WHO’s decisions on potential engagement in different types of partnerships and provides principles to be applied when WHO agrees to host a formal partnership.
When WHO agrees to serve as host, the partnership must be in line with WHO’s accountability framework, operational platform and rules. WHO/Europe works with its partnerships to ensure that this policy is followed.
