Developing Our 8th Strategic Plan

A Pathway to Navigate the Animal Health Landscape

WOAH is developing its 8th Strategic Plan (the Plan), driven by the momentum of Members and staff to shape the Organisation’s activities in the years to come in a meaningful and impactful way. An analysis of the context paints a picture where compounding environmental factors, human behaviours and societal changes are exacerbating or generating new threats related to animal health and welfare, and at a time when long-standing multilateral norms are being challenged. Through the Plan, and in close collaboration with both Members and staff, WOAH is establishing a pathway to help Members navigate the complex landscape of animal health and welfare and global challenges more broadly.

The timing is prime. A year after celebrating its centenary, drawing on insights from the ongoing governance review, and under new leadership bringing fresh vision and ideas, WOAH is building on 100 years of partnership, collaboration and a shared sense of duty towards the sector.

Approach and Timeline

WOAH will present the 8th Strategic Plan for adoption by Members at the May 2026 General Session. Its development is following a phased approach. The first phase mobilised WOAH management and Regional Core Groups, as well as other sources of information. These included key findings from a review of the 7th Strategic Plan’s implementation, a survey of Members and other stakeholders on WOAH data, support and services, benchmarking with other international organisations’ strategies and more.  

The first phase produced the overarching strategic directions of the Plan. It also directed WOAH towards updating its Strategic Plan format by placing greater emphasis on monitoring, costing and regional implementation. These new elements will complement the Plan for a more effective strategic management of its implementation.

During the second phase, WOAH extended consultations to all Members and all WOAH staff who wished to contribute to elaborating the content under each strategic priority. WOAH held seven workshops with staff and one per region with Members throughout June and July. The workshops brought together a wide range of perspectives, skills and expertise. The outputs were rich in ideas and proposals, reflecting the intersection of Members’ needs, WOAH’s ambitions and operational realities.

WOAH is now collating data and input from the workshops and drafting the Plan. As a preliminary step, it will share the draft plan with a range of stakeholders for review and feedback in the months ahead. As key beneficiaries, Members will remain involved to ensure their needs are reflected in WOAH’s strategic ambitions for the coming years.  

Strategic Priorities

The collaborative and inclusive approach adopted during the first phase led to three strategic orientations and four strategic enablers. The orientations reflect Members’ overall feedback for WOAH to accomplish its mission while adopting a more holistic approach to tackle animal health threats. In short, to ‘continue doing what you do, and do it even better’.

This meant stepping back to look at the wider animal health landscape – from equipping systems and the veterinary workforce with the right tools, to engaging politically at high-level to position animal health as critical to tackling food security, public health, climate change and more.

The four strategic enablers – focused on WOAH’s data, people, governance and systems – aim to modernise institutional ways of working.

The Director General presented these orientations and enablers at the General Session last May. They were well received by Members, who welcomed the clarity of the proposed vision. Among the main feedback, several Members emphasised the need to closely align the development of the Plan with the recommendations of the Governance Review Committee. Members also reaffirmed the importance of having a strategy supported by realistic costing and a rigorous monitoring framework, while encouraging the continuation of the inclusive approach for its development, already undertaken.

Strength in Collaboration

The development of the 8th Strategic Plan is demonstrating the value of bringing diverse stakeholders together to identify shared priorities that reflect WOAH’s overarching ambition for the years ahead. As the work progresses, we thank all those who have contributed so far – and those who will continue to do so in the months to come.

Contact: Camilla Wuensch ([email protected]), Performance Management and Internal Control Unit