Decentralisation and WHO reform: a broader perspective

WHO) reform process, the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva organized an event to discuss "Decentralisation in WHO: Advantages and Challenges" on 21 January 2013.Three perspectives were presented on that occasion: A broader perspective by Prof Ilona Kickbusch, a regional perspective by Zsuzsanna Jakab, and a perspective of the WHO Joint Inspection Unit by Istvan Posta.These presentations are available on the WHO EURO website through the following link: http://bit.ly/UqsKjEThis working paper is a slightly revised version of the presentation given by Professsor Ilona Kickbusch.It offers an alternative approach to decentralisation.The paper argues that the greatest challenges of the WHO reform are governance challenges.In principle, WHO with its three tiers of governance is actually better placed to act in a multilevel and multi-actor world than many other international organizations.Its challenge is to set itself up to do so much better than at present through adopting principles of network governance.This is a challenge not only to the Secretariat but also to the Member States and how they govern the organization.The WHO must not only set priorities -it must apply foresight and become strategic in a new way.In order to ensure that health -in the broad sense of the WHO Constitution -is high on the global agenda WHO needs to adapt its own governance and capacities to a strategic and networked approach of work and make visible (and learn from) those experiences within the organization where this is already applied successfully.