WHO PRESENCE IN COUNTRIES,
TERRITORIES AND AREAS
2025 REPORT
Stronger WHO country presence for a healthier and safer world
Leadership of WHO country offices
Strong country offices start with strong leadership. The goal of WHO is to ensure that there are strong and capable leaders in country offices. Each of WHO’s 153 country offices has a head of country office (HWCO).
Heads of WHO country offices
Mostly referred to as WHO Representatives (WRs), they are the designated representatives of the Director-General and the respective Regional Director to Member States. WRs use their expertise and acumen in health diplomacy to lead WHO’s strategic and operational functions in their assigned country. They are selected from a roster using a merit-based global talent management system. To enter the roster requires individuals to pass a rigorous assessment conducted by an external entity. The final selection of a WR from the roster is done through a competitive selection process.
Number of HWCOs/WRs
Overview
Number of WCOs with full-time WRs
Number of WCOs with acting WRs or officers in charge
By WHO region
Note: Recruitment is ongoing for all. UAE, which is a Country Desk Office is included here.
WHO endeavours to ensure that every country office has the right leadership at all times. There are cases when the post is vacant and an acting arrangement is made while the selection process is being completed. (Note: The selection process is completed when the Member State accepts the candidate.) In 2024, WHO filled many vacant positions, reducing the number of acting arrangements.
Moreover, WHO has also established Deputy WR positions in 21 country offices. The core predictable country presence (CPCP) initiative has helped to increase the number from nine to twenty-one. A Deputy WR helps the WR to perform their function and provides stability of leadership in the country offices.
Geographic and gender diversity
To ensure strong leadership in country offices, WHO aims to improve the diversity of the HWCOs/WRs in the country offices. It has tracked the ratio of female to male WRs across the regions from 2014 to 2024.
Percentage of women HWCOs/WRs: 10-year trend
Overview
By WHO region
Despite proactive efforts, the percentage of women leading WHO country offices has not yet reached gender parity targets. Some regions, such as the Region for the Americas, have maintained a more balanced share, and others, such as the Western Pacific Region, have made progress over time. WHO will be establishing a WR pipeline initiative in 2025, in which one of the objectives will be to improve the gender diversity of the leadership in country offices.
As a global Organization, WHO also aims to improve the geographic diversity of leadership in country offices. It is now starting to track the nationalities of WRs from outside the region. The Action for Results Group, composed of WRs, proposed a target of 30% in every region.
Percentage of WRs from outside the region
Overview
2023 Report
2025 Report
By WHO region
The percentage of HWCOs/WRs from outside the region varies between regions. The Western Pacific Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region have appointed significantly more candidates from nationalities outside their respective regions. Language constraints have been one of the challenges. In other cases, it is the small number of applicants from outside the region applying to HWCO/WR positions. WHO aims to improve in this area through further refinements in the selection process.
WHO leadership in the United Nations Resident Coordinator system
As of 2024, there is one United Nations Resident Coordinator (UNRC) from WHO, and WHO aims to increase its presence in the system. The UNRC pipeline has accepted seven candidates from WHO to be part of its process.
Our workforce in WHO country offices
Since WHO announced its Country Focus Policy in 2002 at the World Health Assembly, the Organization has steadily increased its presence in countries. The aim was to strengthen capacities of country teams and to ensure effective functioning of country offices, as well as coordinated technical support. The rationale for WHO to move in this direction has grown since that time, following the recognition of the importance of health in the context of human and economic development, and the rise in the number of groups involved in health actions within countries.
During the last two years, under the leadership of the current Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Organization has begun to make sweeping changes to further strengthen its foundations on the ground, with incremental but momentous steps taken to empower and better resource its 153 country offices across the world. The WR-led Action for Results Group proposed an action plan to strengthen country offices, which proved to be a significant shift towards putting countries at the centre. This has meant that greater attention is paid to ensuring that country offices are fit for purpose, leading to their empowerment, especially in terms of their leadership and greater core capacities. This reinvigorated focus on strengthening capacities in countries has drawn lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, which clearly showed the value of WHO being present when and where it is needed to deliver effective, timely and impactful support to Member States.
Staffing in WHO country offices*
Total number of staff in country offices, by region
| WHO Region | Total number of WCOs | Total number of WCO staff | % |
| Africa | 47 | 1,892 | 41% |
| Americas | 27 | 352 | 8% |
| Eastern Mediterranean | 21 | 912 | 20% |
| Europe | 32 | 514 | 11% |
| South-East Asia | 11 | 556 | 12% |
| Western Pacific | 15 | 358 | 8% |
| Total | 153 | 4,584 | 100% |
*The staff headcount reflected in this profile refers to staff recruited under the budget centre of the WHO office in the respective country, territory, or area. The data is from December 2024.
The total number of staff in WCOs (4,584) accounts for 47% of the total number of WHO staff. The total number of staff in the African Region and the Eastern Mediterranean Region combined accounts for about 60% of the total number of staff in the country offices. Over 70% of staff in WCOs are in typology D and E countries. This is because WHO has field operations in many countries in these regions, in response to emergencies and humanitarian crises. More than two thirds (69%) of typology D and E country offices are in the African and Eastern Mediterranean Regions. The same two regions also have a high number of country offices, with 47 and 21 respectively.
Type of staff in country offices
More than half (57%) of the total number of staff in WCOs are professional and national professional officers (NPOs). NPOs are staff who are nationals working in their own country. This indicates that there is an increasing presence of technical capacity in WCOs. Some 95% of professional and NPO staff are in typology C, D and E country offices, which indicates an emphasis on placing local technical capacities in countries requiring extensive technical support.
Overview
Professional level
(23%)
National professional officers
(34%)
General service level
(43%)
By WHO region
By WCO typology
The general service staff account for 43% of the total staff in WCOs. Nearly 80% of general service staff are in the African, Eastern Mediterranean and South-East Asia Regions, while 68% are in typology D and E countries. These are country offices with large field operations. With country offices continuing to have less financing than they require, there is also a reliance on lower cost local staff (NPOs and general service staff) compared with professional-level staff.
In addition, the Organization has about 5,500 non-staff personnel, with the greatest proportion in the African Region (59%) and the South-East Asia Region (33%). Most non-staff personnel in the South-East Asia Region (55%) are in the India Country Office.
Category of staff: international and local
The balance between international and local staffing varies, depending on the needs of a country office.
The table below shows the split between international and local staff in country offices by typology.
Balance between international and local staff in WCOs
| Typology of country office | International | Local |
|---|---|---|
| A – Policy support | 50% | 50% |
| B – Targeted technical and strategic support | 37% | 63% |
| C – Moderate technical support | 39% | 61% |
| D – Full technical support and emergency response | 42% | 58% |
| E – Full support incl. field operations | 51% | 49% |
| Total | 44% | 56% |
The percentage of international staff in typology C and D countries (where intensified technical support is required) is lower compared with other WCO types. Referring back to the figure above on the type of staff in country office, in typology C WCOs, for example, the percentage of NPOs (27%) is almost as much as the percentage of professional-level staff (24%), while the percentage of general service staff is nearly half (49%). In typology B WCOs, the percentage of local staff is significantly higher (63%). This is being addressed through the Core Predictable Country Presence initiative, as these countries require greater technical capacities to provide the necessary technical support.
Gender diversity of staffing in country offices
Gender distribution between international and local WCO staff
Overview
By international staff
By local staff
Overall, women account for 40% of the entire workforce in WHO country offices, and the percentage of women leading WHO country offices is almost similar (35%). The female to male ratio for local staff is relatively high in the Western Pacific Region (68%) and the European Region (60%). However, the female to male ratio for international staff is persistently low in all regions except the Region of the Americas and the Western Pacific Region. Efforts to provide greater opportunities for women to compete for international positions through the harmonized recruitment process has been in place for several years. WHO Secretariat will continue to monitor the results of those efforts to address specific measures, including how WHO nurtures and attracts female talents worldwide.
WHO staff for delivering on the strategic priorities
Although the staff numbers seem to be driven by the need for a WHO emergency response in typology D and E country offices, the greatest number of technical staff (28%) are in the universal health coverage strategic priority, compared with 21% for the health emergencies strategic priority. Half of the universal health coverage staff are in the African and Eastern Mediterranean Regions, indicating that WHO is focused on building capacities to provide technical support for universal health coverage, resilient health systems, maternal and child health and immunization, even in the regions with mostly typology D and E country offices.
WCO staffing under each GPW13 strategic priority
Overview
Healthier populations
Universal health coverage
Health emergencies
Data and delivery
Core predictable country presence
As part of its transformation at the country level, WHO established the core predictable country presence (CPCP) initiative, which aims to provide stable and predictable capacities in country offices to support Member States more effectively and efficiently. Core staff positions are established for each typology of country office in a differentiated way, depending on what functions they perform based on countries’ needs.
Number of WCO staff considered as core by the CPCP initiative
Core Predictable Country Presence Model
A
B
C
D
E
The figure above shows the expected number of CPCP staff in each typology of WHO country office as per the CPCP model. The aim is to achieve this CPCP model, although this is not the entirety of staffing in country offices. These are staff who, through the CPCP initiative, were identified as essential in ensuring that the country office has a stable and predictable presence. To know more about CPCP, see the WHO website for country office strengthening.
Nearly 60% of core staff are in typology D and E country offices. These are offices in countries with the greatest need for capacities to support Member States.
Overall, only 57% of the CPCP positions are occupied currently. About 43% are vacant or have yet to be funded or established.
Sixty per cent of the CPCP positions are technical and leadership positions, while 40% are management positions, including those fulfilling programme administrative, human resources and compliance functions.
On average, CPCP positions required in every country office are just over 50% occupied. While further investments are still required to meet the core capacities of country offices to deliver technical support, this represents a tremendous improvement during the last two years. Prior to 2023, there was no core predictable country presence established for country offices and more than 30% of country offices had three or less staff. The CPCP initiative places the highest priority for technical and leadership capacities, especially in typology D and E countries. However, due to the limited funding for country offices, only half of the technical and leadership positions are currently occupied.
Highlights on WHO’s workforce in countries