WHO Country Office
The role of a WHO country office is to respond to requests from the host country to support policy-making for sustainable health development, taking a holistic health-system approach. This includes providing guidance, building up local relationships to implement technical cooperation, making standards and agreements, and ensuring that public health measures are coordinated and in place during crises.
The WHO Country Office in Turkey was established in 1959 in Ankara as the focal point for WHO technical cooperation in the country. It also hosts an emergency field office in Gaziantep to respond to the crisis in north-western Syria. Its priorities are set out in the biennial collaborative agreement between WHO/Europe and Turkey. The Office implements the agreement in close collaboration with national institutions and international partner agencies.
The WHO country team consists of 38 people in Ankara and 25 people in Gaziantep, including experts in the fields of:
- health systems and public health;
- emergency preparedness and response;
- noncommunicable diseases and mental health;
- communicable diseases;
- monitoring and evaluation;
- mental health;
- health security;
- migration and health; and
- injury prevention.
