The chronicle interview.

• Position: Interview with Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director General of the World Health Organization

In your campaign for election and in your address to the World Health Assembly on the day you were elected as Director-General, you presented your vision for WHO. Could you share with the UN Chronicle what that vision is?

First, I have refer to the vision of the member States of the World Health Assembly, which is encapsulated in the concept of "Health for All" - a very ambitious goal. The question then becomes: How do we achieve this goal, step by step? How do we serve humanity and member countries in the best possible way to work towards that goal? The vision for me then would be to be able to make a difference; to be able to measure the outcomes; and to mobilize attention towards the importance of health in development, the key function health has in every population, and the importance of realizing that investing in a healthy population is an investment both in humanity and in social and economic development.

How effectively can WHO attempt to realize that vision with its existing human and financial resources?

There are limitations and budgetary restraints. The regular budget covers only half of our current work programme. The organization has for many years been partially financed through the regular budget. Extra-budgetary funds have made it possible for us to do more than what the limited regular budget would have allowed. Even so, within the total amount of resources, WHO is a small organization compared to its ambitious, broad mandate.

To what extent, therefore, do you intend to continue to seek extra-budgetary resources and what are some of the sources of such funds?

I have also defined WHO to be the centre of excellence, the lead agency in health, with the knowledge and the ability to make positive change with regard to health on behalf of the international community and, of course, governments and civil society. To do this, we need to go into partnership with others. This is not an agenda we can take on alone.

We have to work with other United Nations institutions, with the private sector and with civil society, including non-governmental organizations, because they are all having an impact on development around the world. Therefore, we are reaching out to others - creating partnerships. The projects that I have launched - "Roll Back Malaria" and the "Tobacco Free Initiative" - both involve partnerships in this broad sense. They require the participation of the entire organization across the different programmes - now dusters - because we need to have a more synergistic approach across the board and across the three levels of the organization [headquarters, regional and national].

The projects are examples of how we are building partnerships. But that also means going to the donors with partners, with an effective plan. It also entails approaching donors with a mandate which is not duplicative, but which pools resources and allows all partners to do their best at what they are good at, and to do it in a collaborative fashion. I think such an approach is important to those who want to ensure that the money they are willing to give to health and development is used in the best possible way.

Recently the Rockefeller Foundation offered a grant of $2.5 million in support of WHO's work. In what areas will these funds be channeled? If the organization were to receive similar donations in the future, in what areas will they be used?

The Rockefeller Foundation took a very positive step. It wanted to contribute to the renewal and the efficiency of the work of WHO so they contributed the fund to finance experts that we could recruit to add to the value and knowledge base of the organization. As a result, we can bring in new blood-people who will come to the organization for a year or two, gain experience, add to their value and then return to their base with increased knowledge of WHO. That was the thinking, which I thought was very forward...