The following announcement was sent out by GHevents@unfoundation.org through various channels to civil society organizations and is herewith quoted as a service to G2H2 members and partners:
“You are cordially invited to join colleagues from civil society, member states and WHO staff for the launch of the WHO-Civil Society Task Team’s final recommendations on Friday, 7 December at 12:30pm CET in the Executive Board Room of WHO Headquarters. For those who would like to join in person, you must RSVP to via the INDICO system: http://reg.unog.ch/e/Launch-CSO-report, instructions are also attached.
For those who cannot join us in person, you may watch the launch via Livestream:
English:
- from a computer: http://who-meeting.webex.com/join/EBRoomEN
- from a Videoconference endpoint: EBRoomEN@who-meeting.webex.com
- from a phone: +41 43 456 95 64 Meeting number: 845 873 153
French:
- from a computer: http://who-meeting.webex.com/join/EBRoomFR
- from a Videoconference endpoint: EBRoomFR@who-meeting.webex.com
- from a phone: +41 43 456 95 64 Meeting number: 840 902 861
Civil society registrants are also cordially invited to join us for a deeper dive discussion on the recommendations and next steps shortly after the launch. The discussion will take place from 14:00-15:00 in Salle A on 7 December. Lunch will be provided.
Alternatively, if you cannot join in person, please join us on Wednesday, 19 December at 8am ET / 2pm CET for a webinar. Please register your interest for the webinar by emailing GHevents@unfoundation.org and detailed instructions will be sent on how to participate.”
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Source/enquiries: GHevents@unfoundation.org
We just received a confirmation by the organizers that all civil society organizations independent of being a “non-state actor in official relations with WHO” are invited and allowed to attend the meeting.
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Report/website: https://civilsociety4health.org/
The report of the Task Team, together with some information about the background and proposed follow-up can be found on website set up by the UN Foundation.
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A critical assessment of the Task Team process
For a critical assessment of the Task Team (process), we refer to a message sent by Thomas Schwarz, Executive Secretary of the Medicus Mundi International Network, to the Task Team coordinator on 4 June, and which he afterwards also shared with G2H2 members:
“As indicated when we quickly met in Geneva, my concerns relate rather to the process and terms of your team’s work than to your particular recommendations. Appreciating your efforts to collect voices of civil society to improve relations with WHO, I raised the following:
- the role of the UN Foundation in steering this civil society process;
- the role of the Global Health Council (a hybrid organizations with many corporate sector members) in your team and process;
- lack of transparency regarding the process (e.g. no ToR or list of task team members publicly available);
- lack of transparency regarding the input collected and how it was processed;
- in your discourse: the implicit perspective to perpetuate the task team and its role beyond its current “mapping” mandate.
Overall, I have not seen much enthusiasm for your survey. As one of my colleagues put it: “I started filling the form in and realised that it was an intelligence gathering exercise by people I didn’t trust – so stopped.”
On the other hand, looking back to your “celebration” of the role of civil society at the WHA side event, I told you that I strongly disagree with Dr Tedros’ proposal to use “whatever partnerships are open to (WHO)”, and that I disagree with some of the invited civil society speakers (e.g. the PATH representative Steve Davis) promoting “relaxed” relations between civil society organizations with the corporate sector.
But there would be a lot to be done, at all levels, just to safeguard the current standard of WHO relations with those “civil society organizations who play a critical role in advocacy, service delivery and other areas” (Tedros). The feedback received from the WHO secretariat on our initial collection of concerns and proposals is rather disappointing, And in practice, space for civil society in global health governance processes is currently rather shrinking – just look at the statements of some WHO member states in the EB debate after the World Health Assembly: They need us for pretending inclusiveness, but do not really like us.
…and there would be a lot more to be added, but rather not at this stage, and not via e-mail or online form. I am looking forward to seeing your team’s final report (and, hopefully: the related documentation) in a few weeks.”
Message reproduced here with the agreement of the sender.
Contact: schwarz@medicusmundi.org