The World Heart Federation has produced an update on the WHO FENSA process, which we have been tracking with interest. FENSA stands for ‘Framework for Engagement with Non-State Actors’; it is the WHO’s guiding policy for how it works with external organizations, including the World Heart Federation and its members.
WHO Member States adopted a final draft of FENSA at this year’s World Health Assembly in Geneva, after four years of intense negotiations. FENSA will be applied to all three levels of the WHO (global, regional and national), with ambitions for it to be fully operational within two years.
Under the new FENSA, NGOs in official relations with WHO are still able to engage in productive partnerships with the organization, including seconding staff, coordinating meetings and collaborating on projects. There will be limitations on the extent to which private sector organizations can engage in these activities.
