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WHO Global
Knowledge Management Strategy
This is a challenging time for
global public health and particularly for the fragile health of populations
in developing countries. However, the increasing resources for international
health aid and growing demand to improve health systems offer an opportunity
to foster health equity in countries most in need. Many of the solutions to
health problems of the poor exist. But are not applied, leading to what is called
the “know-do” gap: the gap between what is known and what is done in
practice. The mission of WHO Knowledge Management (KM) is to help bridge the “Know-do gap” in global health by fostering an environment that
encourages the creation, sharing, and effective application of knowledge to
improve health.
The KM strategy focuses on national policy-makers, WHO
programmes, and health professionals. The objectives of the strategy lie in
three main areas – strengthening country health systems through better
knowledge management, establishing KM in public health, and enabling WHO to
become a better learning organization, through the following strategic
directions.
Strategic
Directions
 Improving
access to the world’s health information
 Access
to knowledge and information is inequitable, while information overload is
widespread. WHO is promoting access to high-quality, relevant, targeted
information products and services.
Translating
Knowledge into policy and action
Health
inequalities persist despite known, effective interventions and steadily
increasing investment in health. WHO is building evidence and capacity on KM
approaches to address priority health needs in countries.
Sharing
and reapplying experiential knowledge
Knowledge
management methods and tools offer new opportunities for WHO and public
health. WHO is providing guidance and facilitating the adoption of KM methods
so that experience is reapplied and built upon in practice.
Leveraging
e-Health in countries
Information
and communication technologies offer great potential to improve health
services and systems. As well as incorporating ICT in its technical work, WHO
is supporting country health systems through advocating evidence based
policies, monitoring e-Health trends, identifying good practice, facilitating
networks of expertise, and promoting norms, standards, and the integration of
ICT into health workforce training and practice.
Fostering
an enabling environment
Creating
an environment for the effective use of knowledge is vital to achieving WHO’s
mission. WHO is strengthening organizational capacity, advocating adoption of
KM in the field of public health, and improving capacity for implementing KM
at country level.
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