Country office strengthening
for country impact
The mother of 11-month-old Jasmin, that was born with a congenital heart condition, discusses with a WHO Officer during a health checkup at Bethesda Hospital, Hungary.
Making WHO reliable, impactful, relevant in every country
WHO is committed to enhancing its effectiveness and making a meaningful impact in countries, ensuring that we can effectively serve our Member States. Our approach involves empowering country offices through a comprehensive bottom-up process, spearheaded by WHO representatives in collaboration with the Action for Results Group. Since the proposal of an Action Plan in February 2023, significant strides have been made to fortify country offices, ensuring they are equipped with the necessary resources, personnel, and streamlined operations. This strategic focus enables WHO to deliver tangible results where it matters most—at the country level.
Action for Results Group
In January 2023, the Action for Results Group (ARG) was founded with a focused mission: to accelerate the empowerment of WHO country offices, aligning with the Organization's enduring commitment to meeting countries' needs effectively. The group, consisting of two WHO Representatives (WRs) from each of WHO's six regions, was carefully designed to ensure broad representation and informed decision-making. The ARG, with combined insights and expertise of all WRs, carefully created an Action Plan designed to initiate lasting transformations tailored to the unique requirements of each country.
Strengthening WHO country offices for greater impact
The Action Plan to strengthen WHO country offices addresses critical capacity needs, while ultimately striving to make WHO more reliable and impactful. A key component is its differentiated “core predictable country presence”, which recognises the need to build differentiated core capacities in all country offices, but varies them depending on the level of WHO support provided to countries based on their needs.
The Action Plan's key areas are as follows:
Enhanced delegation of authority to WRs in countries
In 2023, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and five WHO regional directors issued a joint global delegation of authority to WHO Country Representatives, to enable them to provide more responsive and timely support to Member States. This significant step in decentralizing leadership recognizes the vital role of WHO Country Office heads and will empower them to take a stronger leadership role in the countries they serve.
Core predictable WHO country presence, implemented and financed
Recognizing the need to have core staff positions that are predictably financed in WHO country offices, the ARG recommended a model based on a minimum core structure and capacity for all country offices. This core predictable country presence (CPCP) will help ensure country offices are fit-for-purpose with the required technical and managerial capacities. Importantly, the CPCP is differentiated by country office “typology”, based on a rigorous process that looks at country context, situation and need. This also helps set the support provided – policy dialogue, strategic support, technical assistance or service delivery. The typology will be revised when critically needed based on the changing situation in countries.
→ Core predictable WHO country presence differentiated approach table
A more mobile workforce to better support countries
An ARG-supported new global staff mobility programme is underway to help put the right workforce in the right place at the right time. It will respond effectively to a changing environment, enhance professional development and introduce culture change and promote “one WHO”. The programme will be geared to the needs of countries, so as to strengthen health systems and services to benefit people in countries.
Streamlined planning of country level work
Planning of country-level work is being sharpened so it is focused on better alignment with national health priorities, and results delivery. Investments in human and financial resources in the country offices will not only be geared towards delivering on these priorities, but strengthen country-level work planning, capacity building and implementation to address health issues which require cross-sector collaborations. The entire results-based management approach will also be streamlined to minimize the process burden for country offices and to drive impact in countries.
Improved human resources management
The ARG has proposed a comprehensive set of actions to ensure human resources management is more efficient and geared towards harnessing staff capacities and talents. These include making the recruitment and selection process faster and more transparent. It will be geared towards placing the right people in the most demanding places at the right time.
More open communication between staff across the Organization
A new internal WHO policy aims to facilitate a free exchange of ideas and information among all staff members, no matter their grade, office or level of the Organization. This pursues the goal of the WHO transformation agenda for a more modern, seamless, impacted-focused Organization better equipped to support countries. It aligns with the ARG’s Action Plan to bring together all capacities at all levels to support Member States as one Organization.
In just a few months, the plan has catalyzed significant changes with profound implications for countries worldwide. Critical positions in country offices have been prioritized, supported by a substantial US$ 200 million funding allocation. Empowering WHO Representatives (WRs) with a revised delegation of authority has amplified their influence in management decisions. Furthermore, initiatives to enhance staff mobility and streamline communications across the WHO network have been swiftly implemented. Guided by the ARG, these decisive actions are propelling WHO's ongoing transformation efforts, accelerating our mission to drive impactful change where it's needed most—in countries.
Striving for greater impact in countries