Thread by @globalhlthtwit

Colin Mathers, former coordinator of mortality and burden of disease statistics at WHO, raises challenging issues over ownership of global health data. (1) biomedcentral.com/epdf/10.1186/s…

He asks whether it is sustainable and politically acceptable for WHO to devolve data ownership and coordination to the Gates-funded Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at Univ of Washington in Seattle. (2) @richardhorton1 @IlonaKickbusch @devisridhar @fgodlee

"The current (WHO) administration does not seem concerned that WHO reports are publishing inconsistent statistics from IHME and from UN Interagency Groups." (3)

"There is no longer a central coordination and clearance role within WHO for the production of coherent “UN” global health statistics." (4)

"WHO Member States have already put pressure on WHO not to use IHME statistics for a universal health coverage index and I expect that difficulties in effectively collaborating with IHME.... " (5)

"...will ultimately lead a future administration of WHO to seek to expand WHO expertise and work in the production of global health statistics once more." (6)

"For many Member States, the WHO still retains a
unique mandate and accountability for global health
statistics and a moral authority as a setter for norms
and standards that is not available to academic or
NGO groups." (7)

"It remains to be seen whether WHO Member States will be comfortable with WHO lending its mandate for global health information to an independent North American academic group." (8)

"It also remains to be seen whether WHO will continue to
have the resources or will to carry out its own
mandate in a world which at present seems to be increasingly turning away from multilateral global institutions, rules and norms." (9) @HelenClarkNZ @NordstrmAnders