Follow the WHO Executive Board (EB154)
We share with you the People's Health Movement's (PHM) commentaries on different agenda items to be considered at the WHO Executive Board (EB154) meeting set to start on Monday 22 January 2024. We are keen to provide our analysis to delegates from the WHO member-states, so they can take our advocacy into consideration. The various agenda items include Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Universal Health Coverage, Neglected Tropical Diseases, Tuberculosis, Polio, and others.
- Click here for the WHO Tracker page for the agenda for EB154 with links to Secretariat documents and PHM Item Commentaries.
- Click here for the final version (in English) of the integrated (single file) version of the PHM commentary. ( we have attached a copy of this for convenience )
- Click here for the flip book version of the final integrated PHM commentary (EN).
- For other language versions of the final integrated PHM commentary click: French, Spanish, and Arabic.
- There are brief policy briefs or summaries called Item Alerts on some of the topics. All of the published item alerts are linked here.
What is the purpose of the commentaries?
We see ourselves as writing for delegates from progressive, PHM-sympathetic, governments: Our reader may be the single representative of a small low-income country or the junior official within a larger delegation who has been assigned this item. What should the delegation appreciate, push for, or oppose? We seek to identify the current issues under consideration and contextualize those issues within PHM’s broader structural perspective. We focus on what is being asked of the member states at this meeting; this is not the place for a general presentation of PHM’s position on this issue. Please let us know if you plan to write to the delegates from your country involved in the EB meeting or World Health Assembly (WHA) and we will be happy to provide you with a template.
We try to look beyond the bureaucratic rhetoric to understand the politics of each item. Identify the directions being advanced in the Secretariat papers and ask where those directions are coming from (certain countries? WHO funders? or perhaps from Secretariat staff?
We see ourselves as writing also for members of PHM country circles: The issues debated at the January EB are generally also scheduled for discussion at the World Health Assembly in May. We imagine a PHM country circle that is planning on meeting ministry officials or advocating around their government’s position on the priority issues in advance of the WHA. Members of the PHM country circles could share this note as such, adapt it or develop it as a policy brief and then share it with their health ministries. If you could identify those in the ministry in charge of attending the WHO meeting and share it with them, even better. Include your WHO country office and regional office officers if you know them, directly or through mutual friends. Select specific themes that you know are or are more of concern to your country. You may also want to encourage PHM members to take a look at specific topics that are of interest to them. To share the commentary with PHM members in your country you could wait for the final version, which will incorporate further comments and suggestions if any from the SC/AC.
The commentaries have been produced through PHM’s team of policy analysts. For this meeting, more than 30 PHM activists including those from India have been involved.
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