Tomorrow's issue of The Lancet carries an open letter on behalf of the 479 WHO Collaborating Centres signatories. Below are extracts and a comment from me. Full text here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01174-2/fulltext
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'The abrupt cessation of global health funding has placed millions of lives at risk... WHO has a crucial role in responding to unprecedented global health challenges, but is currently encountering considerable operational challenges...
'The belief that decreasing public health budgets in this way can lead to cost saving is immoral and misguided. There is evidence that short-term reductions in critical health programmes lead to long-term economic losses from increased disease burden, reduced productivity, increased treatment costs, and the broader economic toll of uncontrolled outbreaks. A World Bank analysis found that investing in pandemic preparedness alone can yield a return of up to 88% annually through avoided economic damage.
'Public health concerns demand coordinated national and international responses. The COVID-19 pandemic and large-scale outbreaks of Ebola virus and mpox highlight that health security is a collective responsibility. Any threat to collective global action, sustained investment in health, and strong technical leadership risks allowing local health problems to escalate into global crises.
'As current directors, past directors, and members of WHO Collaborating Centres, we fully support WHO in carrying out the constitutional mandate, and call on everyone — including member states, donors, partners, and other stakeholders — to continue investing in WHO to promote health and safety while helping vulnerable populations worldwide.'
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COMMENT (NPW): In addition to its 479 Collaborating Centres, WHO is in official relations with a large number of Non State Actors (NSAs), including HIFA (through Global Healthcare Information Network CIC, the UK-registered non-profit organisation that administers HIFA). From memory I think there are about 280 NSAs, although I cannot access the official list right now [ https://www.who.int/about/collaboration/non-state-actors/non-state-actor... ]. I feel it would be appropriate for WHO's NSAs to similarly show their collective support for WHO, or simply to have the opportunity to endorse the letter from Collaborating Centres. I shall liaise with our designated technical officer at WHO to explore this. At the same time I shall also propose a mechanism for NSAs to coordinate 24/7, perhaps using a community of practice similar to HIFA. At present I am unaware of any platform to facilitate NSA communications.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org