Regional Office for Europe

Date of establishment: 1948
Number of member States: 194
Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland
Director-General of WHO: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Functions of WHO:

WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.

The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) is one of WHO’s six regional offices around the world.  It serves the WHO European Region, which comprises 53 countries, covering a vast geographical region from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. WHO/Europe is made up of public health, scientific and technical experts, who are based in the main office in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 4 outposted centres and in country offices in 29 Member States.

The WHO Representation Office in the Russian Federation

Date of establishment: December 1998
WHO Representative: Dr Melita Vujnovic

The role of a WHO country office is to respond to requests from the host country to support policy-making for sustainable health development, taking a holistic health-system approach. This includes providing guidance, building up local relationships to implement technical cooperation, making standards and agreements, and ensuring that public health measures are coordinated and in place during crises.

The WHO Country Office, Russian Federation was established in December 1998 in Moscow to fulfil, in consultation with the Russian authorities, the following tasks:

• To consolidate WHO’s presence in the Russian Federation
• To coordinate health sector assistance based on WHO’s technical capacity
• To assist the Russian health authorities in activities against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and give support for structural issues linked to essential drugs
• To represent WHO at high-level meetings
• To advise the United Nations and other organizations, donor governments and financial institutions on the delivery of humanitarian and other health-related assistance
• to facilitate the formulation of plans for cooperation between WHO and the Russian Federation

The priorities for the Country Office are set out in the biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) between WHO/Europe and the host country. The Office implements the agreement in close collaboration with national institutions and international partner agencies.

Priorities of BCA in the Russian Federation

Implementing the Health 2020 vision forward on the Russian Federation

• investing in health through a life-course approach and empowering people
• tackling the Region's major health challenges of noncommunicable and communicable diseases
• strengthening people-centered health systems, public health capacity and emergency preparedness, surveillance and response and
• creating resilient communities and supportive environments.

At present the following WHO programmes are on-going in the Russian Federation:

• Tuberculosis Control Programme
• HIV/AIDS Programme
• Road Safety Programme
• Tobacco Programme

Contact information

9 Leontyevsky pereulok
125009 - Moscow,
Russian Federation
Telephone: +7 (495) 787-2108 
Fax: +7 (495) 787-2119
E-mail: eurusco@who.int

Links

Russian Federation page on WHO site
http://www.who.int/countries/rus/en/

Russian Federation page on WHO Regional Office for Europe site
http://www.euro.who.int/en/countries/russian-federation

WHO Documentation Centre in Russia
http://whodc.mednet.ru/index.php?lang=en