The World Health Organization (WHO) is in turmoil with the planned withdrawal of funding and membership from the USA. About 20% of the WHO budget is from the US and withdrawal of all USAID funding is causing serious problems worldwide. Many member states are increasing their dues to WHO to help offset this loss, but these are difficult times for public health. These issues were front and center at the meeting of the WHO Executive Board 3-11 February.
The Executive Board (EB) sets the agenda for the World Health Assembly (governing body of WHO) each year at this meeting, so it is especially important for palliative care (PC) advocates to keep reminding the EB about the importance of including Palliative Care (PC) in plans for health policy, including for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to include PC and for resolutions and reports on non-communicable disease that will be discussed at the next high-level meeting on Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) at the United Nations (UN) this September.
The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC) are the two organizations presently in official relations with WHO and we work together to cover the many health issues. We both are allowed to give verbal interventions at the EB along with other non-state actors (NSAs). We are allowed to speak to the EB members after all member states have had their chance to speak. This year we covered 7 one-minute interventions and 5 three-minute constituency statements (these are statements from a group of NSA’s) on the following topics (you can see these on our YouTube channel):
IAHPC Interventions
Constituency Statement on
- WHO’s work on Health Emergencies
- And joining statement on
- SIOP’s statement on NCDs rare diseases
Individual statements on
- Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health
- Mental health and social connection
- Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem
WHPCA Interventions
Constituency statements we are joining
- (GHC’s) Global Health Council statement on health emergencies (and NCDAs) Non-communicable Disease Alliance
- GHC’s statement on NSAs in official relations
- NCDAs statement on health workforce
Individual statement we are giving
- UHC intervention on global health financing
- NCD intervention on lung health
- Mental Health & Social Connection
- Global health plans supporting dementia
I was also asked by the International Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) to give their intervention on support for childhood cancer under the NCD agenda item.
While it is difficult to know what impact these statements have, we believe it is crucial for palliative care to be heard during these deliberations. The fact that PC is part of the continuum of services under UHC gives us some leverage to ensure that we are not overlooked. In the ten years since the World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on PC passed, we are still seeing little progress in PC development in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) and with the loss of USAID funding the challenges to achieving UHC are only growing.
IAHPC and WHPCA will also be at the upcoming World Health Assembly. WHPCA is collaborating with WHO and the WISH foundation to host a side event again this year to focus on the challenges of achieving universal access to those needing palliative care in the decade ahead. IAHPC will also host a side event so we will ensure that the voice of palliative care is heard loud and clear as global health policy is made.
