Regional governance is exercised through the annual meetings of the Regional Committee, while this governance function between sessions is in the hands of the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee. The frequency, length and methods of the work of these two committees did not change substantially during the biennium.
Regional Committee Regional Committee
The fifty-fourth session in 2004 (3) included four policy and technical subjects:
• the European strategy on noncommunicable diseases;
• the proposed programme budget for 2006–2007;
• a strategy for the Regional Office’s geographically dispersed offices; and
• follow-up to the Fourth Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health.
A technical briefing on the International Health Regulations took place in addition to the regular session. To ensure better continuity between sessions of the Regional Committee, a new follow-up session was introduced in 2004; it gives the Regional Committee updates on important discussions and resolutions from previous sessions.
At its fifty-fifth session in 2005, the Regional Committee (4) addressed five substantive technical issues:
• the framework for alcohol policy in the WHO European Region;
• the updated Health for All policy framework for the WHO European Region;
• the next phase of the WHO Regional Office’s country strategy: strengthening health systems;
• the European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health and Development (whose discussion included strengthening national immunization systems by eliminating measles and rubella and preventing congenital rubella infection); and
• the burden of and policy response to injuries in the WHO European Region.
In addition, there was a first presentation of WHO’s Eleventh General Programme of Work 2006–2015.
As side events, technical briefings were held on the organization of the health system of Romania (organized by the Ministry of Health of Romania) and on obesity, diet and physical activity and strengthening preparedness to respond to a potential influenza pandemic.
Standing Committee of the Regional Committee Standing Committee of the Regional Committee
A number of governance topics recur at meetings of the Standing Committee (5) and can be seen as common threads in its work. Some of these issues reached conclusions during the biennium; some initiatives have only just started, and some global issues continue.
The European Strategy for Child and Adolescent Health emphasizes the lifelong benefits of a good start in life
© WHO
59 Governance
The Standing Committee first addressed the status of the Regional Office’s geographically dispersed offices in depth, with all its practical and political implications, in 2003. It proposed a clear policy for the future. A working group pursued the issue; after much reflection and deliberation, it was successfully concluded by the Regional Committee in 2004 (6).
The Regional Committee’s endorsement of the Health for All update in 2005 concluded two years of work in which the Standing Committee had been a very active partner, holding many debates on the best way to proceed. The result is an update that reaffirms the basic principles of the policy, but also takes a fresh viewpoint, is non-prescriptive and is presented as a framework, offering national policy-makers a possible architecture for health policies based on values (7).
The Eleventh General Programme of Work was a recurring item on the Standing Committee’s agenda. At its request, a European consultation took place in Copenhagen on 10–11 January 2006 immediately before the Executive Board’s meeting. Although the document could not be reviewed in depth, this consultative mechanism responded to the Standing Committee’s concerns: namely, that the European members of the Board should take a broad regional view in appraising the document.
The large number of WHO collaborating centres in the European Region and the questions asked about them at Regional Committee sessions prompted the Standing Committee to discuss them at several meetings. The Standing Committee has followed the clean-up process to discontinue centres that no longer had viable relations with WHO, and the efforts to ensure that remaining centres’ terms of reference and workplans better fit WHO’s priorities and objectives.
The Standing Committee has supported the idea that the next thematic evaluation carried out throughout WHO will deal with collaborating centres, and this has led to the Regional Office secretariat’s playing an increasingly strong role in this evaluation. It is hoped that this evaluation might lead to innovative ways to make the best use of the resources in the collaborating centres. In addition, some Member States with many centres desire some quantifiable measure of the support that they give to WHO through this mechanism.
In 2004, the Regional Committee asked the Regional Director to develop a strategic vision of the role and position of the Regional Office in the future (up to 2020). It was suggested that a working group be established and report to the Standing Committee.
A multidisciplinary working group was established in 2005, consisting of four members of the Standing Committee and six experts in sociology, futurology, health economics, epidemiology, politics and journalism. The first meeting, looking at health trends and scenarios for health in Europe in 2020, took place in Copenhagen in September 2005. Its outcome was reported to the Standing Committee in November 2005, as well as a plan for the remaining work to be undertaken. The result of this work will be presented to the Regional Committee in 2006.
Finally, the Standing Committee made an in-depth review of the new proposal for guiding principles for resource allocation to WHO regions, and the accompanying validation mechanism.
In general, the Committee supported the original proposal and expressed its satisfaction with the approach taken. While this supportive position was transmitted to the European members of the
Programme Budget Administration Committee, full consensus on the proposal was not reached, so the Executive Board asked for further work to be undertaken.