Partnerships
Partnerships are critical to WHO’s ability to effectively implement programmes and improve health throughout the Region. They are essential to raise visibility of an unmet need, support coordination, provide financial support to countries, and provide common platforms for working together. One of the greatest strengths of our partnerships is the ability to combine the relative strengths of different stakeholders to achieve common objectives.
The entities with which WHO engages in partnerships have diverse backgrounds – from the public and private sector, to nongovernmental organizations, philanthropic foundations and academic institutions. Our partnerships can take the form of donors, collaborating centres, and official partners. In all instances, they are part of an international collaborative network that is critical for WHO to carry out its numerous regional and global health initiatives.
Funding is essential for WHO to implement programmes and improve health throughout the Region. Donors provide an essential source of funding which contributes to financing WHO programme budget priorities. WHO is funded by Member States, international organizations, the private sector, and other sources. Funds go to WHO headquarters, regions, or specific programme areas.
WHO partners with a variety of governmental and nongovernmental actors to respond to national and global health challenges and to bring better health to the people of the region. Our partners include countries, the United Nations system, international organizations, civil society, foundations, academia, research institutions and people and communities.
WHO Collaborating Centres are institutions which form part of a global network carrying out activities in support of our programmes. As of July 2018, there are 193 WHO Collaborating Centres in the Western Pacific Region, located in 10 Member States. They provide support to wide-ranging technical areas of work – from traditional medicine and health systems development, to serving as global or regional laboratories for specific diseases.
The work of the World Health Organization’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Environment and Health in the Western Pacific Region started in October 2019. The Centre, a WHO WPRO Geographically Dispersed Specialized Office, is hosted by the Republic of Korea in Seoul.
The Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (APO), hosted by the WHO, is a collaborative initiative promoting evidence-informed decision-making in health systems across the Asia Pacific region.
The WHO Western Pacific Office and its Country Offices collaborate with numerous partners across the region in order to achieve common health promotion objectives.
The Stop TB Partnership was established in 1998 with the goal of eliminating tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB. Stop TB comprises a network of international organizations, countries, public and private sector donors, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and individuals that have expressed an interest in working together to achieve this goal.
The Measles & Rubella Initiative is aimed at ensuring no child dies of measles or is born with congenital rubella syndrome. It is led by the American Red Cross, the United Nations Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF and WHO. Since its founding in 2001, it has supported 80 countries to deliver more than one billion doses of measles vaccine, helped to raise measles vaccination coverage to 85% globally, and reduced global measles deaths by 74%. These efforts have contributed significantly to reducing child mortality.
WHO is a partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, the largest private-public partnership for health, which has reduced polio by 99%. Polio now survives only among the world's poorest and most marginalized communities, where it stalks the most vulnerable children. The Initiative's goal is to reach every last child with polio vaccine and ensure a polio-free world for future generations.
WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund) have a long and successful partnership working together to intensify HIV, TB and malaria interventions and strengthen health systems in many countries. This collaborative effort has resulted in significant reductions in the disease burdens of HIV, TB and malaria worldwide, saving millions of lives since 2002.
