Resource Pack: Core Global Health Organizations

This resource pack includes examples of global health actors—institutions, organizations, and alliances—that operate within our increasingly complex global health system. 

Sometimes these actors are categorized as (1) those whose primary intent is to improve health, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), or (2) those that influence health, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), or are relevant to health, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In this resource pack, however, we classify actors by “type” and include examples in the following major categories: (1) United Nations (U.N.) System, which includes programs and funds (e.g., U.N. Children’s Fund [UNICEF], specialized agencies (e.g., WHO), other entities and bodies (e.g., Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS], United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees [UNHCR], etc., and their affiliates); (2) Global Alliances and Public-Private Partnerships (e.g., Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, GAVI Alliance, etc.); (3) Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society (e.g., International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, and Human Rights Watch); (4) Philanthropic Organizations (e.g., Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation); and (5) Others, such as organizations focused on research, data analysis, and/or policy (e.g., IHME, PRB, RAND, Council on Foreign Relations, etc.).

Note that we did not include national governments, with their specialized health ministries, departments, or agencies, and bilateral development agencies, which are part of the broader “global health system." We also acknowledge that there are additional civil society organizations, multinational corporations, and academic institutions that are not included here, but serve as part of the “global health landscape.”