10 Global health partnerships, networks and alliances, and initiatives have been established to raise visibility of an unmet need, support coordination, provide financial support to countries, and/or provide common platforms for working together by combining the relative strengths of different stakeholders including the public sector, private sector entities, nongovernmental organizations, philanthropic foundations and academic institutions.
20 The term "partnerships" is being used generically to include various organizational structures, relationships and arrangements within and external to WHO for furthering collaboration in order to achieve better health outcomes. These range from legally incorporated entities with their own governance to simpler collaborations with varied stakeholders. Diverse terms such as "partnership", "alliance", "network", "programme", "project collaboration", "joint campaigns," " collaborative arrangements" and "task force" may be used in the title of these partnerships, although this list does not represent a typology.
30 The term "formal partnerships" refers to those partnerships with or without a separate legal personality but with a governance structure (for example, a board or steering committee) that takes decisions on direction, workplans and budgets. WHO currently serves as the host organization for several formal partnerships which have not been established as legal entities. WHO's decision-making process for engaging in partnerships, outlined below, applies in all cases whether or not the partnership is external to the Organization.
40 WHO engagement in partnerships and other forms of collaborative arrangements, as well as hosting of formal partnerships is guided by its Constitution, the General Programme of Work and the WHO rules and regulations. The Policy on WHO engagement with global health partnerships and hosting arrangements (the "Partnerships Policy") endorsed in 2010 by the Sixty-third World Health Assembly (resolution WHA63.10) provides a framework to guide WHO's assessment of, and decision concerning, potential engagement in different types of health partnerships; it also provides specific parameters to be applied in cases where WHO agrees to host a formal partnership.
50 The Partnerships Policy lists ten criteria for assessing WHO's engagement in future partnerships and guiding its relationship with existing ones. These are as follows: (a) the partnership demonstrates a clear added value for public health; (b) the partnership has a clear goal that concerns a priority area of work for WHO; (c) partnerships are guided by the technical norms and standards established by WHO; (d) the partnership supports national development objectives; (e) the partnership ensures appropriate and adequate participation of stakeholders; (f) the roles of partners are clear; (g) transaction costs related to a partnership must be evaluated, along with the potential benefits and risks; (h) pursuit of the public-health goal takes precedence over the special interests of participants; (i) the structure of the partnership corresponds to the proposed functions; (j) the partnership has an independent external evaluation and/or self-monitoring mechanism.
