The Lancet: Offline: Solving WHO’s “persisting weaknesses” (part 2)
Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet

“…What if we accepted that financing arrangements for WHO hampered its ability to fulfill this core mandate? Perhaps one option would be to create a fully and independently funded body, still under the leadership of WHO but separated financially and administratively from its existing structure. This new organization would be tasked with preparing for, detecting, and responding to global health emergencies. It would be led by WHO, but governed by a diverse board of partners. Critics might oppose the idea of dividing a core function from the main body of WHO. But if we agree that the status quo is not an option (and surely we do), and if we also agree that radical reshaping of WHO is improbable, a substantive but still practicable reform, building on WHO’s strengths, ought to be taken seriously” (1/17).