Norwegian involvement in the World Health Organisation
Article | Last updated: 18/12/2024 | Ministry of Health and Care Services
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations specialized agency for health. Norway has been actively involved in the WHO since the organization was established April 7, 1948.
The WHO's mandate is set out in its constitution (who.int, PDF).
- The WHO works to ensure that all people enjoy the highest attainable standard of health. Health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
- Following the world’s heads of state adoption of the UN’s sustainable development goals, WHO's primary task is to work towards SDG 3: good health and well-being for all.
WHOs areas of responsibility
The World Health Organization (who.int) is the UN's specialised agency for health. It is the world’s leading global health organisation and relevant for all Member States.
WHO is the arena at which political solutions to shared health challenges are developed. The organisation issues norms and standards, leads and coordinates the world’s response to health crises, and provides technical support to Member States. WHO plays an important role as a normative, globally cooperative, development-oriented, and humanitarian actor.
WHO's activities also affect several adjacent policy and technical areas; including foreign and development policy, social policy, child and family policy, climate and environmental policy and various forms of industrial policy, such as food and medicines.
About WHO
The Director General is Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from Ethiopia. He took office in 2017 and was re-elected in 2022 for a new five-year term. The headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation has six regional offices and 150 country offices.
WHO consist of 194 Member States and the secretariat. WHO is governed through meetings of its decision-making body, the World Health Assembly (WHA). The world’s health ministers meet at the annual WHA in Geneva to approve the WHO’s strategic plans and programme budgets, and to adopt resolutions and decisions. Together, these establish WHO's mandate and set political and technical guidelines for its work.
WHO's Executive Board is composed of members from 34 Member States. Norway has a seat on the WHO Executive Board (EB) from May 2024 to May 2027. The Norwegian Board Member is the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health and Care Services, Dr. Cathrine Lofthus.
European office in Copenhagen
WHO's regional office for Europe is located in Copenhagen, Denmark, and is led by the Belgian regional director Hans Kluge. With 53 member countries from Europe and Central Asia, it is WHO's largest regional office.
It contributes to the implementation of global initiatives at regional and national levels and establishes its own initiatives to address regional challenges.
The countries of the region meet every year in the Regional Committee, which is the highest regional decision-making body.
Composition of expert committees and technical committees
WHO cooperate with global networks of professional institutions and experts in several important fields. This includes collaborating centres in existing knowledge institutions in Member States, also in Norway (who.int). Furthermore, WHO make use of various types of professional and expert committees in its normative work and in the preparation of matters to be discussed in meetings of the governing bodies.
Several Norwegian ministries, agencies, technical bodies, non-governmental agencies, and NGOs are in various ways involved in WHO's activities. WHO encourages member states to include a youth delegate in meetings of the organisation's governing bodies. Appointed by the National Council for Children and Youth Organizations (LNU), youth delegates have been part of the Norwegian delegation for several years. National experts participate in personal capacity in such contexts.
It is a fundamental principle and important for WHO's authority as a knowledge organization that the secretariat is responsible for assembling experts to gather leading knowledge in relevant fields.
Norwegian contribution to WHO
The Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has prepared the Norwegian WHO strategy, which provides guidance for Norway's efforts during the term on the Executive Board. The three main priorities are good governance, achieving universal health coverage, and improving preparedness and response to health and humanitarian crises.
Norway is among the largest donors of voluntary contributions to the WHO, mainly financed through official development assistance (ODA). A significant proportion of Norwegian funds go to WHO's humanitarian efforts.
Since the establishment of the WHO, Norway has had prominent persons in key positions in the organization. Gro Harlem Brundtland was Director-General in the period 1998 to 2003. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was Brundtland's Chief of Staff. The then Director-General of Health, Karl Evang, played a central role in the establishment of WHO in 1948.
The Ministry of Health and Care Services are also involved in the work of other UN organizations, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).