SIXTY-SIXTH WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY Provisional agenda item 11
A66/50 20 May 2013
WHO reform Financing of WHO Report of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board to the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly
1. The eighteenth meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee was held in Geneva on 16 and 17 May 2013 under the chairmanship of Dr Jamal Thabet Nasher (Yemen).1 The Committee adopted its agenda.2 2. The Secretariat introduced the report on the financing of WHO,3 noting that the report had attempted to respond to the Member State queries arising in recent consultations concerning WHO’s financing. 3. The Committee observed that the report provided additional clarification on the implications of the proposals to improve WHO’s financing that had been examined and endorsed by the extraordinary meeting of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee in December 2012 and by the Executive Board at its 132nd session in January 2013. 4. The Committee acknowledged that implementation of the proposals will require behavioural changes on the part of both Member States and the Secretariat. It was also noted that further work is required concerning the development of a new, transparent, equitable mechanism on resource allocation that facilitates alignment of resources with agreed priorities, as well as a coordinated mechanism for resource mobilization at all the three levels of the Organization. 5. In relation to approval of the programme budget, the Committee reiterated support for this proposal while acknowledging that a detailed, bottom-up planning and costing exercise at all the three levels of the Organization will be implemented for the programme budget for the period 2016–2017. The Committee requested additional information concerning the status of available resources for the biennium 2014–2015.
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The list of participants is available in document EBPBAC18/DIV./1. Document EBPBAC18/1. Document A66/48.
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6. In relation to the financing dialogue, the Committee expressed support for the approach described, including the threshold for level of participation of non-State contributors. It was noted that the meetings on the financing dialogue should not usurp the legitimacy and primacy of WHO’s governing bodies. The Committee advised that further information relating to the second meeting of the financing dialogue, the interim process between meetings, and the expectations for contributors leading up to the November meeting should be further clarified during the first meeting of the financing dialogue. The Committee also commented that a review of the lessons learnt from the financing dialogue could be examined by the Executive Board in January 2014, following the November meeting. 7. The Secretariat explained that in addition to ongoing work that is related to a more robust costing of outputs, efforts continue on the strengthening of coordinated Organization-wide resource mobilization and resource management. Additionally, the Secretariat informed the Committee that the Director-General is proposing to establish a process that will examine new approaches to resource allocation under the stewardship of the Chairman of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board.
RECOMMENDATION TO THE HEALTH ASSEMBLY 8. The Committee, on behalf of the Executive Board, recommended that the the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly note the report on the financing of WHO contained in document A66/48, and that the Health Assembly adopt the following amended draft decision:1 The Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly decided to establish a financing dialogue, convened by the Director-General and facilitated by the Chairman of the Programme, Budget and Administration Committee of the Executive Board, on the financing of the programme budget, with the first financing dialogue on the proposed programme budget 2014–2015 to take place in 2013, in accordance with the modalities described in document A66/48.
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Amendments are marked in bold text.
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