WHA78.10
WHA78
WHA78.10
Strengthening national capacities in evidence-based decision-making for the uptake and impact of norms and standards
1
The Seventy-eighth
World Health Assembly,
Having considered the consolidated report by the Director-General;
Recalling the collective commitment to achieve universal health coverage and the role of evidence, knowledge and innovation in promoting quality of care, improving financial protection and driving positive outcomes;
Recognizing
WHO's unique status as a science- and evidence-based organization and its normative leadership, as outlined in its Constitution and in the Fourteenth General Programme of Work, 2025–2028, with its renewed focus on country-level impact including through timely delivery, expanded access to and uptake of
WHO's normative, technical and data products;
Recalling the experiences encountered during the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID‑19) and the need for robust and timely clinical and public health guidance that is relevant to context and responsive to local needs and equity considerations;
Recognizing scientific evidence as an important basis for the development of clinical and public health guidance;
and
recognizing also the value of science and high-quality evidence in ensuring that complex information is synthesized and available in accessible formats for end-users to guide practice and improve health outcomes;
Concerned that there are significant gaps, including inadequate resources, in the capacity of countries to produce and use relevant local and global evidence in developing new clinical and public health guidelines or in adapting existing guidelines with proper feedback systems to measure the cost-effectiveness and quality of clinical care, public health guidance and policy and their impact on population health and well-being;
Recalling the Constitution of the
World Health Organization, resolution
WHA75.8 (2022) on strengthening clinical trials to provide high-quality evidence on health interventions and to improve research quality and coordination, and resolution
WHA63.21 (2010) on
WHO's role and responsibilities in health research;
Acknowledging the recommendations from the external evaluation on
WHO's normative function at the country level that address the impact and effectiveness of
WHO's normative products within individual country context;
Emphasizing the critical role of evidence-based
WHO norms and standards in health decision-making and the need to maintain trust in the health system and the global health processes for establishing norms and standards, especially in the light of misinformation and disinformation;
Underlying the need to foster strong local and regional clinical and public health leadership and innovation that are human-centred and based on science and evidence, which is the key to creating a conducive environment for local investment in research, public health infrastructure and other supportive systems at the local and regional levels;
Acknowledging the importance of supporting local priorities and informing context-specific research, including through implementation research, local innovation and product development for priority diseases that include ongoing efforts, such as those on proven approaches focusing on quality vaccines, diagnostics, therapeutics, medical supplies and including nonpharmacological, digital, public health and prevention interventions,
1.
(1)
to institutionalize, as appropriate, structures, systems and processes for the development and adaptation of clinical and public health guidance;
(2)
to strengthen national quality control, as well as regulatory frameworks and authorities, to facilitate appropriate uptake of global clinical and public health recommendations;
(3)
to enhance and sustain investment to strengthen national capability for guideline adaptation and timely uptake of normative products, including fit-for-purpose digital technologies that are tailored to public health needs and their respective health system maturity levels;
(4)
to strengthen legal and policy frameworks and domestic support to enable high‑quality research and development that provide contextual data to facilitate the adoption, adaptation or de novo development of clinical and public health guidelines, as needed; and to support monitoring and evaluation of the use and impact of these guidelines for improved and more equitable health outcomes;
(5)
to coordinate efforts to strengthen the generation, synthesis and use of evidence for decision-making, with effective dissemination, use and local impact of clinical and public health recommendations;
(6)
to facilitate collaborative and multicountry research on health decision-making frameworks focused on clinical and public health recommendations,
taking into account national and regional contexts and regulatory practices;
(7)
to create or support an enabling environment, including technical and regulatory frameworks for implementing clinical and public health guidelines, with feedback on impact to enable evidence-based decisions and prioritization in health;
(8)
to consider the use of economic evaluation and priority-setting in national guideline development and the financial impact of dissemination and implementation;
2.
REQUESTS the Director-General:
(1)
to ensure that
WHO's normative products: remain of consistently high standard and are adapted to local context, with particular attention to developing countries including small island States; are driven by
Member States' needs; and are designed and delivered in a timely manner to achieve impact;
(2)
to use
WHO's convening power to provide and support platforms for relevant stakeholders in a systematic and integrated manner across the evidence-to-policy and implementation spectrums, using digital systems and a living approach
5 to
WHO's normative products for country implementation and impact;
(3)
to identify the obstacles for
Member States to the uptake and implementation of
WHO's normative products, and to provide support to
Member States, upon request, in priority-setting and in the establishment of national capacity and mechanisms, as appropriate, in order to generate and use contextual evidence to support systematic adaptation and uptake of
WHO's norms and standards;
(4)
to support multilingualism and ensure that
WHO's normative products are published in all six official languages of the
United Nations, and to make efforts to extend possible support to
Member States for publishing normative products in their respective local languages;
(5)
to support and facilitate, within and among countries and across regions, collaborations for strengthening national and regional science capacities;
(6)
to identify opportunities for and consider, where appropriate, the establishment of regional collaborating mechanisms, such as centres of excellence, in order to facilitate access by
Member States and other relevant stakeholders to the necessary expertise corresponding to need;
(7)
to develop, within existing resources, in close consultation with
Member States and with inputs from relevant stakeholders, in line with the
Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors, as applicable, a global framework on uptake and impact of norms and standards and a global plan of action for the implementation of the framework in 2027;
(8)
to strengthen the
Secretariat's capacity for providing technical support to
Member States, within existing resources, including through the
WHO Academy and
WHO's other technical training platforms, for scaling up the adaptation and implementation of
WHO's normative products in line with the Fourteenth General Programme of Work, 2025–2028, with the appropriate structure, resources, assets and capabilities;
(9)
to report on progress made in the implementation of this resolution to the Eightieth
World Health Assembly in 2027, the Eighty-second
World Health Assembly in 2029 and the Eighty-fourth
World Health Assembly in 2031.
(
Seventh plenary meeting,
27 May 2025 –
Committee A, fifth report)
See ANNEX 5 for the financial and administrative implications for the Secretariat of this resolution.
Document A78/4.
WHO normative function at the country level: evaluation report. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2024 (accessed 3 March 2025).
And, where applicable, regional economic integration organizations.
Quality Assurance, Norms and Standards. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025 (accessed 4 March 2025).
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