The World Health Assembly is the senior decision-making body of the World Health Organization (WHO). It is attended by delegations from all 194 Member States and the main function is to determine the policies of WHO. According to the WHO constitution, the assembly reviews and approves the proposed programme and budget, supervises the financial policies and appoints the Director-General.

The 66^th meeting of the World Health Assembly is taking place between 20^th and 28^th May, 2013, in Geneva.

Follow #WHA66

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  The agenda and formal documentation for this week is available here.


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  The event is getting plenty of attention on Twitter via #WHA66


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  Thanks to Inis Communication for alerting us to a helpful Twitter list by @setiogi about who is tweeting from the event.

On the Side

During the assembly, there are a number of side-events on specific topics that are 'sponsored' by specific Member States. From a comprehensive list provided by Inis Communication which details all of the side events that they have identified so far (including related hyperlinks where they exist and sponsoring countries are given in brackets where known), we have chosen some daily areas of interest:

TODAY Monday 20^th May

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  Good Governance in the pharmaceutical sector: the case of Thailand and Malawi [Thailand/Malawi]


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  Air pollution – a major health risk factor. What can be done about it? [Ghana/Norway/Sweden]


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  Human resources for health in the context of universal health coverage [Belgium/Brazil]

Tuesday 21^st May

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  Post-2015 Consultation on Global Health and Diplomacy


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  Addressing violence against women: health impacts and role of the health sector [Belgium/Inida/Mexico/Norway/USA/Zambia]


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  A changing landscape in global health: Charting a course for the global health community in the post-2015 era

Wednesday 22^nd May

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  Volunteerism and universal health coverage


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  WHO Global Code of Practice on the international recruitment of health personnel: stoking up the fire for code implementation


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  Universal health coverage of workers [South Africa]


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  Health in the Post-2015 agenda [Sweden]


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  mHealth for NCDs: The unique opportunity and challenges [Costa Rica]

Thursday 23^rd May

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  Health of the world’s girls: the missing link in the global development agenda?


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  Promoting access to medical technologies and innovation – intersections between public health, intellectual property and trade


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  Transformative HRH professional education: learning and sharing [Thailand]

Friday 24^th May

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  Public-Private Partnerships in Afghanistan’s hospital sector [Afghanistan]


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  Maternal and child health: Millennium Development Goals and beyond [Bangladesh]


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  New medications for NTDs, tuberculosis and malaria: a new initiative, Global Health Innovative Technology Fund (GHIT) [Japan]