Ten Years of Transformation: Making WHO Fit for Purpose in the 21st Century

Over the past decade, extraordinary progress has been made in transforming the World Health Organization (WHO), bringing it into the 21st century and positioning it not only as the world’s public health agency, but as forward-looking and fit-for-purpose. By developing innovative leadership, managerial structures and systems, the changes that WHO has undergone have resulted in increased effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness, transparency and accountability. Above all, these reforms have been grounded in robust metrics to measure performance and have been integrated into organization-wide systems and processes.

The Organization has evolved fundamentally while weathering some of the greatest health crises the modern world has seen. Anyone walking in the doors at WHO today finds an agency that is revitalized, ready for the challenges of this century, operating smoothly across its three levels – headquarters, regions and countries – and squarely engaged with partners and governments to tackle this era’s health challenges. This report tells the story of that transformation, from 2007 through to the current day.