Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 4
4
The WHO needs support to withstand political pressure from certain member states.
Recommendation
The WHO needs support to withstand political pressure from certain member states. There should be no space for doubt about the independence of the WHO’s leadership, particularly given the organisation’s important work during the pandemic. Working in a highly political environment and facing targeted attempts at influence by Beijing and other governments, the Director-General should be insulated from the need to campaign for re-election. Making key deliberations public would help to remove any scope for undue influence. We recommend that the FCDO should support proposals to give the Director-General and other senior officials a single, non-renewable term, and to publish deliberations on declaring a public health emergency. (Paragraph 15) 22 Global Health, Global Britain
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
We would like to see increased transparency of the deliberations of the Emergency Committee and welcome the call to adopt a more transparent approach, including providing more information on how decisions have been reached and on what basis. We are yet to see evidence for benefit of changing terms of office for the WHO Director-General but are open to considering this should evidence emerge. We have publicly supported the idea of increased transparency on the deliberations of the Emergency Committee, which consider whether an emergency constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).