Report of the Governance Review Committee to the World Assembly of Delegates – 93rd General Session (2026)

As WOAH prepares for the 93rd General Session in May this year, the Governance Review Committee (GRC) has released its 2026 report outlining proposals to modernise and strengthen the Organisation’s governance framework. Developed through extensive Member consultation and regional engagement, these recommendations will be submitted to the World Assembly of Delegates (WOAH Assembly) for consideration and decision, marking a milestone in the ongoing governance review. The report reflects both the progress achieved during Phase 1 of the Committee’s work and the collective commitment of Members to building a more transparent, efficient and inclusive Organisation.

Progress to Date (May 2025 – March 2026)

Over the past year, the GRC has held six meetings and launched two subgroups to codify WOAH’s mandate and review the organisation and governance of its technical bodies. It has also carried out consultations with all five Regional Commissions, ensuring that regional perspectives and priorities remain central to shaping the Committee’s proposed reforms.

Seven Recommendations for Member Consideration

In its 2026 report, the Committee has put forward seven recommendations for consideration by the WOAH Assembly at its 93rd General Session in May 2026. In line with Resolution No. 5 (2025), these proposals aim to strengthen WOAH’s institutional, regional and financial governance.

The recommendations are to:

• Increase transparency regarding WOAH Members’ financial contributions and arrears.
• Launch a consultation and analysis process on moving from WOAH’s self-selection statutory contribution model to a compulsory, formula-based system.
• Clarify and reinforce WOAH’s sanctions model for Members in arrears.
• Expand the ability of delegation members to speak and vote at the General Session with the Delegate’s authorisation.
• Modernise the roles and functions of Regional Commissions and their Bureaus.
• Transform the Past President seat on the WOAH Council into an elected position.
• Introduce a three-tier, risk-based framework for cooperation agreements, allowing the Council and Director General to finalise certain agreements under defined conditions.

Together, these recommendations aim to clarify key aspects of WOAH’s governance, improve the  consistency of oversight, strengthen financial arrangements and update roles and processes across the Organisation.

Strong Member Engagement and Phase 1 Extension

Member engagement has been central to the GRC’s work. Active participation from all regions has helped shape the Committee’s proposals and ensure they reflect shared priorities. Building on this momentum, Phase 1 has been extended to the 94th General Session in 2027, allowing the GRC to continue refining its work through inclusive consultation and sustained collaboration with Members.

What’s Next?

The GRC report will be presented during the WOAH’s virtual Regional Commissions meetings in May, offering Members another opportunity to exchange views on the Committee’s recommendations. The proposals will then be formally considered by the WOAH Assembly during the 93rd General Session in May.

Key Dates to Watch

• Virtual Regional Commissions meetings: May (several dates)
• Next GRC Meeting (GRC 10): 14–15 May 2026
• 93rd General Session: 18–22 May 2026

Stay informed, stay engaged, and join us in shaping the future of WOAH governance. Together, we are building a stronger, more transparent Organisation that advances animal health and welfare for a healthier, more sustainable world.

To learn more, explore the GRC Report to the 93rd General Session and the GRC website.

Contact: GRC Secretariat ([email protected])

The Governance Review Committee (GRC) is examining how WOAH’s governance can better serve its Members and strengthen global animal health in a rapidly changing global context. During recent GRC meetings in September and November 2025, discussions focused on making governance more transparent, efficient and representative, and ensuring the Organisation remains responsive to Members’ priorities.

Governance Reforms in Focus: Highlights from GRC-6 and GRC-7

The GRC has made steady progress in strengthening WOAH’s institutional and regional governance. At GRC-6, the Committee explored future roles and functions of the Council and Regional Commissions and how they can collaborate more effectively to tackle global and regional animal health priorities. It also began looking at ways to strengthen support for Delegates through their advisors in the WOAH Assembly and Council.

At GRC-7, held in Paris and online, discussions expanded to three critical areas of governance reform:

• Codifying WOAH’s Mandate – reinforcing WOAH’s global leadership in animal health.

• Financial Governance – reviewing WOAH’s statutory contribution model and resource mobilisation strategy to safeguard WOAH’s long-term sustainability and its ability to deliver for Members and the global animal health community.

• Technical Governance – improving how WOAH’s technical bodies (Specialist Commissions, ad hoc Groups and Working Groups) are structured and work together to develop WOAH standards, official animal health status assessments and other critical scientific and technical outputs.

To maintain momentum, the GRC created two subgroups focused on WOAH’s mandate and the organisation of technical bodies.

Why It Matters: Building a Future-Ready Organisation

The span of reforms recommended by the GRC will ensure that WOAH’s governance is strong, transparent and fit for present and future challenges. They will enable the Organisation to continue delivering global contributions to animal health and welfare in an efficient, effective, sustainable and inclusive way.

What’s Coming Up: Key Dates to Watch

• Next GRC Meetings: January and February 2026.
• GRC Report to the 93rd General Session: March 2026.

How to Get Involved

Regional consultations with WOAH Members are ongoing – Delegates and other contact points should watch for the next round in December or early 2026.

Additionally, Delegates can track GRC progress directly through the Delegate Portal, which provides meeting documents, background papers and summaries.

All Members are encouraged to stay engaged by sharing their ideas and feedback with their regional GRC representatives. Together, we are building a stronger, more transparent Organisation fit for the future, advancing animal health and welfare for a healthier, more sustainable world.

Contact: GRC Secretariat ([email protected])

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Progress Updates from the WOAH Governance Review Committee (July-September) and New Resources

The Governance Review Committee (GRC) of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) is making steady progress in its mission to modernise the Organisation’s institutional governance. Following its meeting in July, the Committee continues to engage with WOAH Members across the regions, gathering input and fostering inclusive dialogue to guide the reform process. Here is a look at recent developments and next steps.

Strategic Deliberations Set the Stage for Greater Transparency and Efficiency

On 14-15 July 2025, the GRC convened virtually to begin discussions on WOAH’s institutional governance. Key topics included clarifying the respective roles of the Assembly, Council, Regional Commissions and Director General; reviewing the size and composition of the Council; and shaping a policy for WOAH’s engagement with non-state actors – entities that are neither states, intergovernmental organisations nor organisations part of WOAH’s expert base. These proposed reforms aim to enhance transparency and efficiency of WOAH’s governance.

Regular Regional Consultations Underway

GRC representatives are regularly engaging with WOAH Members across all regions to gather practical feedback and priorities that reflect regional realities. These discussions are a vital part of the review process, ensuring that every Member has the opportunity to actively shape the Organisation’s reform path. Members are encouraged to share their views and ideas with their regional GRC representative to ensure regional and subregional perspectives are heard.

New GRC Web Page Launched

WOAH has launched a dedicated GRC web page, offering a central hub for information and engagement.

• – Delegates can use the Delegate Portal to securely access GRC documents.

• – Stakeholders – from partners to the wider veterinary community – can follow reform progress, understand the process and learn how WOAH is strengthening its governance.

What’s Next?

The GRC will meet virtually on 30 September and 1 October 2025 to continue its work on institutional governance. Additionally, a hybrid meeting is scheduled for 18–21 November 2025, with in-person participation in Paris. These sessions will focus on technical and financial governance. In the lead-up to these meetings, virtual regional consultations will continue across WOAH’s five regions.

Why it Matters

The GRC is a Member-centred reform effort, offering an opportunity to modernise WOAH’s governance so it is fit for the future. Together, we are building a stronger, more inclusive Organisation to advance animal health and welfare worldwide.

Contact: GRC Secretariat ([email protected])

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

Key outcomes on WOAH’s Governance at the 92nd General Session and the Governance Review Committee Meeting

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) is taking bold steps toward modernising its governance. At the 92nd General Session (92GS) last May, the Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution No. 5 (2025), paving the way for a comprehensive governance reform package to be reviewed and decided upon by the Assembly at the next General Session in May 2026.

Key Outcomes on the 92GS and Governance

Here’s what’s in the spotlight: 

• Commitment to Progress: Delegates affirmed that the reform work of the WOAH Governance Review Committee (GRC) embodies WOAH’s vision of becoming a modern, adaptable and forward-thinking organisation, dedicated to animal health and welfare worldwide. 

• Transparency and Effectiveness: A renewed focus on enhancing how WOAH operates, including
  – Refining the selection process for Specialist Commission members. 
  – Documenting processes and clarifying stakeholder input in WOAH’s standard-setting and technical decisions (e.g. WOAH animal health status decisions and register for emerging diseases). 
• Get Involved: All WOAH Members are encouraged to actively participate in the GRC reform work by providing their ideas and feedback to their regional GRC Members (Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Guatemala, Ireland, Kenya, Lebanon, Norway, People’s Republic of China, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Tunisia). 

Special Highlights from GRC Meeting on Technical Governance

Ahead of the General Session, the GRC convened on 23–24 May 2025 to discuss transformative ideas for WOAH’s technical governance. This included:

• Reviewing how WOAH Specialist Commissions, Working Groups, and Ad hoc Groups are formed and collaborate.
• Exploring expert selection processes to ensure inclusivity and technical excellence.

The GRC was also joined by Dr Sarah Cahill, Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, and Ms Adriana Moreira and Mr Emmanuel Krah from the International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat, sharing insights on stakeholder engagement and standard-setting processes.

What’s Next?

To dive deeper, explore the current reform proposals to be reviewed by the GRC in Annex 2 of the GRC’s Report to the 92nd General Session (92_GS/Adm-06). The outcomes of GRC-4 will also soon be accessible on the WOAH Delegate Portal by Delegates.

Stay informed, stay engaged, and join us in shaping the future of WOAH governance. Together, we’re building a stronger, more transparent organisation, advancing animal health and welfare for a healthier, more sustainable world.

Contact: GRC Secretariat ([email protected])

December 2024 – April 2025 

In December 2024, the World Organisation for Animal Health launched the WOAH Governance Review Committee—an important step to ensure the Organisation stays strong, adaptable, and ready for the future. The Assembly requested that the Director General establish this Committee at the 91st General Session in Resolution No. 12 of 2024. The Committee will take a fresh look at how the Organisation governs itself—across technical, financial, institutional, regional and legal areas—to keep WOAH effective and sustainable.

The Committee is made up of representatives from 16 WOAH Members identified by our five Regional Commissions, as well as regional advisers from other WOAH Members selected by the Committee representatives. In total, we have participants from over 30 WOAH Members contributing to the Committee. The Committee will provide its full set of recommendations on governance improvements to the Assembly at the 93rd General Session in 2026 and then work on a package of legal reforms for the Assembly’s approval at the 94th General Session in 2027.

Progress of the Committee’s Efforts

Since January 2025, the Committee has held three meetings to prepare its work programme and make initial recommendations on governance improvements. The Committee’s first report to the Assembly for the 92nd General Session is already available at 92GS/Adm-06. From May 2025, it will pursue a holistic review of how the Organisation governs its standard-setting and other technical decision-making processes, institutional bodies, regional footprint and financial sustainability. You can view the current list of governance reform ideas, which the Committee will tackle at 92GS/Adm-06 Annex 2.

To support this journey, we are bringing together colleagues from across the WOAH Membership, WOAH’s technical bodies, the Secretariat’s departments and regional offices to weigh in, too. All WOAH Delegates will have access to the Committee’s documents via the WOAH Delegate Portal, and consultation with regional WOAH Members is already embedded in the Committee’s work programme.

Contact: The GRC Secretariat ([email protected])

Animal diseases: their impact on society

If a family in Madagascar loses a Zebu cow to disease, they are deprived of more than just the value of the animal. Cattle are often a lifeline for their owners. By providing milk for the household and working to plough fields and pull carts, they become an intimate part of family life. Animal diseases can also have ripple effects on trade, food supply, livelihoods and, ultimately, human health and well-being. Whilst these effects can be difficult to quantify, it is important to conduct this analysis so that we can address the needs of livestock keepers appropriately.

Therefore, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) has partnered with the University of Liverpool (UoL) to promote the development of knowledge in animal health economics. The ultimate goal is to help Veterinary and Aquatic Animal Health Services have the greatest impact on people’s lives and national economies.

In 2021, WOAH and its partners have secured more than 7 million US dollars to roll-out the Global Burden of Animal Diseases (GBADs) programme. Through GBADs, we strive to understand both the direct and indirect costs of animal diseases in order to improve not only animal health and welfare but also human well-being, particularly in rural, agriculture-based communities. The burden includes effects on livestock populations and agriculture, costs of mitigation efforts and trader impacts.

“The GBADs programme will help Veterinary Services improve their investments in the strengthening of animal health systems, their allocation of resources, and also have a data structure so that they can evaluate past policies” explains Jonathan Rushton, Director of the Global Burden of Animal Diseases programme, based at the University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Bringing together economic science and veterinary knowledge

To date, estimates of the overall “burden” of animal diseases has proven limited due to a lack of a systematic and standardised process across countries and animal production systems. How do animal diseases affect human health and well-being? What are the positive socioeconomic consequences of implementing preventative measures over time? Answers can come only by merging knowledge from veterinary and economic sciences.

“If we know what we’re losing or what we’re spending, then we’ll have a fairly good idea to present business cases for investment from either governments, the private sector, or individual farmers” explains Jonathan Rushton, who is also a professor of animal health and food systems economics at the University of Liverpool. “It’s about investing in the right places to achieve best outcomes on managing risk”.

The GBADs programme is led by WOAH jointly with the University of Liverpool and implemented by organisations and universities that work at the crossroads of public policy, private sector, and academia.

This year, the programme has entered into a new phase. We have rolled out a framework on measuring animal health burdens, their impacts on human lives and economies, and begun a case study in Ethiopia. A second case study, in Indonesia, was also launched in addition to a knowledge engine prototype to test the tools that will provide us with relevant data in the future. Building on these achievements, we aim to publish initial estimates of animal diseases burdens at global and national levels in 2022.

In May 2021, we also launched our first Collaborating Centre for the Economics of Animal Health, bringing together the University of Liverpool, Utrecht University, and the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. This collaboration will facilitate data collection using a standardised and analytical approach. It will also support the development of capacities on animal health economics and similar centres of excellence in other regions of the world.

Animal health for better human development and well-being

Livestock and aquatic animals provide roughly 1.3 billion of the global population with income, nutritious food, clothing, fertilizer, building materials and traction power. Poor animal health also correlates with poverty and malnutrition. Furthermore, it directly impacts women in rural agriculture-based economies, who comprise two-thirds of low-income livestock keepers. Linking existing animal disease data to socioeconomic consequences, GBADs programme will identify how animal health impacts small household income, the empowerment of women, and the equitable provision of a safe, affordable, and nutritious diet.

The approach that merges the animal health and socioeconomic sectors is on track to guide our actions on the long-term. The data collected by the GBADs programme will ultimately contribute to more efficient animal production systems. It will also help all stakeholders identify the most devastating animal health issues to address in order to prevent ripple effects on livelihoods and the well-being of both humans and animals.

Learn more about the GBADs programme here.

Funding for the GBADs programme: the Australian government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Brooke, European Union – DG SANTE, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Ireland, Italian Ministry of Health, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office, and the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

An article from the 2021 Annual report: read the original