The Chatham House Working Group on Health Governance, in the institute’s Centre on Global Health Security, was formed to consider, in the first instance, the role of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the international system that supports global health. The members of the group met three times. There was broad consensus on the role that the WHO should ideally play, but views differed concerning what kind of restructuring might or might not be desirable or possible to help it play that role.
This report is intended as a complementary contribution to the ongoing internal debate on the reform of the WHO, but offers a perspective based on the deliberations of a groupthat was able to step outside the constraints inevitable in the formal processes of an intergovernmental body, and to consider issues that are important but politically difficult to address. While this report is based on the deliberations of the group, any views expressed are those of the author, not the responsibility of the group, or indeed of Chatham House.
