From 7 to 9 April 2026, Lyon hosted the first Global Forum of WHO Collaborating Centres, with the theme ‘Collaborating for a Healthier Future’, alongside the One Health Summit 2026 and bringing together global experts from hundreds of institutions designated as WHO Collaborating Centres across more than 80 countries. This Forum aims to strengthen the scientific and technical contribution of these centres to the WHO’s Fourteenth General Programme of Work (GPW 14) and the “Health for All” agenda.
During a session dedicated to the role of Collaborating Centres, the WHO Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, and Didier Jourdan, Head of the FR-135 Collaborating Centre and holder of the UNESCO Chair Global Health & Education, spoke jointly. Hans Kluge set out the strategic framework for the European Region, emphasising the need for strong networks of Collaborating Centres to support countries in the context of multiple crises.
Didier Jourdan illustrated this framework based on the experience of WHO Collaborating Centres, highlighting three key developments for the network:
- moving from scattered initiatives to genuine work programmes aligned with EPW2 and GPW 14;
- strengthening links with the WHO Academy to roll out evidence-based training on a large scale; and
- using health education and literacy as a structural response to the crisis of mistrust in science and institutions.
Together, they championed the idea of Collaborating Centres conceived not only as ‘centres of excellence’, but as interconnected ‘centres of capacity’, serving education systems, health professionals and communities.