Was the World Health Assembly 63 a Real Success?

Abstract

The World Health Organization annually arranges World Health Assembly where Thailand has appointed delegations to attend for many consecutive years. In 2010, a total of 39 Thai delegations attended the 63rd World Health Assembly. This article presents the preparation and the performance of the Thai team, which was comprised of technical experts from various organizations both inside and outside Ministry of Public Health, in the WHA63 meeting. This article demonstrates examples of making intervention on the draft of a global strategy; the performance and successful outcomes when a Thai expert was appointed to be the Chairman of the drafting group on a WHO Global Code of Practice; the discussion in the agenda on election of the Director-General of the World Health Organization; and the debate on unpromising implementation on the first WHO Code, International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes since thirty years ago which has had limitation on its implementation and monitoring and evaluation. What Thai public health system benefits from this process include the experiences on the team work among Thai experts from various institutes; knowledge, skill and experience transfer among the team; learning by doing about global health policy; and the way of thinking and commitment to improve health which aims for public benefit and does not limit to only Thai people but also for all populations in the world. These efforts are a good example for the capacity building of Thai team both at individual capacity and networking among many institutes.