"WHO has increased its capacity in the last three years very significantly and wants to be a credible, predictable and reliable partner in the emergency field," WHO Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises, Eric Laroche, said yesterday.
He noted that the agency's Director-General Margaret Chan is dedicated to boosting WHO's capacity to enable its emergency response ability.
Laroche pointed to the example of Myanmar, which was struck by the deadly Cyclone Nargis in early May, where the UN health agency led a cluster of some 40 different agencies which have shared their data, assessments and planning.
"So this is a completely different way of doing business," he said.
"It's going to be a lengthy process," Laroche agreed, given that institutional and cultural change takes time.
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Currently, the agency leads the health cluster, comprising dozens of partners which aims to understand the different agendas and mandates of organisations working on the ground.
Referring to climate change, Laroche said that such possibilities as increased flooding and less water are well-known, but that many are not as familiar with the medical dimension of global warming, including the advent of new viruses and insect vectors.
To address such health issues, he said it was imperative to boost preparedness and to increase response and recovery capacity in countries at both the national and local levels.