France

France

Partner in global health

This content is last updated on 31 March 2025.

Innovating health solutions and a shared vision for health for all

WHO is proud of its long and fruitful partnership with France. France shares key health priorities with WHO, adopting a crosscutting approach and prioritizing universal health coverage (UHC) as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

In 2023, France launched the French Global Health Strategy for 2023-2027, focusing on several key priorities, including improving healthcare systems and addressing disparities in access to care, which aligns with the WHO and France Framework Agreement 2020-2025.

A significant emphasis of France's global health strategy is improving the capacities of the health and care workforce, contributing to objective 3.2 of the Fourteenth WHO General Programme of Work (GPW14). This is highlighted by its support for innovative programmes such as the WHO Academy that was launched in December 2024.

In 2024, France was a co-host for WHO's first Investment Round, in an effort to mobilize predictable and flexible resources for WHO's core work to promote, provide and protect health and well-being for all people, everywhere.

 
Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
WHO/Ramet
Plaque reveal ceremony of the WHO Academy, in the presence of Emmanuel Macron, President of France, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, on 17 December 2024 at the WHO Academy campus in Lyon, France.
© Credits
 

France: Moving towards flexible financing

The Republic of France is one of the top donors to WHO. During the 2020–2023 period, it was the fifth largest Member State donor of voluntary funding to WHO.

Contributions to WHO are aligned with the Framework Agreement for the period 2020–2025, ensuring sustainable funding for joint health priorities between WHO and France.

During the 2022–2023 biennium, France contributed an overall US$ 156.9 million to WHO, more than doubling its 2018–2019 contribution and becoming the fifth largest Member States donor to WHO for the biennium. France's contributions have also become more flexible during the last few years. France now ranks amongst the top 10 donors to the Core Voluntary Contributions Account (CVCA) and is the fifth largest donor of thematic funding for 2022–2023. France is also a strong contributor to emergencies response and is one of the key supporters of the Contingency Fund for Emergencies.

Voluntary contributions during 2024 amounted to nearly US$ 40 million (until October), with at least a 10% allocated to the fully flexible CVCA.

France has been a strong proponent of the increase of Assessed Contributions and a co-host of the first WHO Investment Round in 2024. WHO thanks France's strong leadership and its support for a sustainably funded WHO.

 

Note: The amounts represent the revenue received by WHO for the period stated. Figures in the Budget Portal may vary, as they represent funds available net of programme support costs.

 
DrTedros and President Macron at WHO

Priorities for the 2024-2025 biennium

  • The WHO Academy.
  • Stronger health systems towards universal health coverage.
  • Health emergencies in particular International Health Regulations and health emergencies preparedness.
  • Reducing health inequalities.
 

Technical highlights

The WHO Academy: Leading lifelong learning for a healthier world

France's generous support and guidance has been the driving force in the development of the WHO Academy, which aims to expand and enhance learning opportunities for health and care workers globally.

The WHO Academy is set to transform global health education by providing lifelong learning opportunities to health professionals, decision-makers, and WHO staff worldwide. Its intelligent online learning platform and state-of-the-art campus in Lyon’s bio-medical district form the heart of a lifelong learning ecosystem, enhancing the capacity of health professionals to tackle global health challenges. The Campus leverages cutting-edge technology to set new standards for in-person and remote learning experiences. It features distance-learning classrooms, an innovation hub and a world-class simulation centre.

On 17 December 2024, H.E. Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO, officially opened the WHO Academy. The ceremony celebrated the worldwide availability of hundreds of courses on the Academy's online learning platform and the commencement of in-person training at the WHO Academy campus.

By combining expertise in adult learning, new technologies and the latest health guidelines, the Academy delivers the right training at the right time and in the right format.

 

Stronger health systems towards universal health coverage

France supports the strengthening health systems to achieve universal health coverage, with particular emphasis on:

  • Strengthening primary health care
  • Human resources for health
  • Financing of health systems
  • Access to high-quality, safe, effective and affordable health products
  • Research and innovation in health and patient safety
  • Governance of health systems
  • Health democracy

France also contributes to the Universal Health Coverage Partnership, which is one of WHO’s largest initiatives for international cooperation for universal health coverage and primary health care. It helps deliver WHO support and technical expertise to 115 countries and growing.

 
French Polynesia Mobile Vax Unit

Health emergencies

France is a leader in global health security. Through its support to WHO, France seeks to achieve better protection of populations from health emergencies, particularly though the reinforcement of health security, including control of epidemic outbreaks and potential pandemic diseases and the implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR). These are carried out through the activities of the WHO Lyon Office, which collaborates with WHO country and regional offices to assist Member States in strengthening their national surveillance and response systems to better detect, assess, notify on events and respond to public health risks and emergencies of international concern under the IHR. Since its establishment in February 2001, the Office has supported responses to epidemics and pandemics, ranging from Ebola, to SARS, H1N1 and most recently, COVID-19, to among many others. 

Celebrating WHO Lyon's contribution to global health security

On 10 December the WHO Lyon Office celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a high-level technical event co-hosted by WHO and the Lyon Métropole. The event brought together senior representatives from WHO, the Government of France and the Lyon Métropole, joined by a panel of global and national experts from countries, national health agencies and the scientific community in Lyon and France.

Reinforcing health systems to combat COVID-19

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of France has worked side by side with WHO to support implementation of the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (SPRP) and the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), a unique partnership that brings together health organizations, scientists, businesses, civil society and philanthropists to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.

In addition to this support, in February 2022, France announced a new € 50 million contribution in support of countries' health systems to overcome bottlenecks in the COVID-19 response and speed up equitable access to testing, treatments and vaccines.

The funding agreement, disclosed on the sidelines of the ministerial conference of foreign ministers and health ministers in Lyon, France, aims to support the work of WHO and work in the Health Systems and Response Connector (HSRC) of the ACT-A, aligned with the WHO's COVID-19 SPRP.

Read more about the new agreement

Global Action Plan for healthy lives and well-being for all (SDG3 GAP)

 
Illustration from SDG3 GAP brochure
SDG3 GAP brochure illustration
Global Action Plan for healthy lives and well-being for all, graphic from SDG3 GAP brochure: Multilateral agencies commit to Engage, Accelerate, Align, Account (EAAA)
© Credits

Improved health and well-being for vulnerable populations particularly through prevention, health promotion, education for health, health literacy and reduction of risk factors, in connection with noncommunicable diseases and the environmental determinants of health; the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) following the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the SDG3 GAP.

France supports WHO’s core function of providing global leadership on health, engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed. The SDG3 GAP was launched at the 2019 UN General Assembly. It highlights the essential role of health for the achievement of all SDGs, and is a historic commitment now being implemented by 13 multilateral agencies. WHO will continue to provide leadership and work with partners to scale up country-level implementation of the SDG3 GAP to support countries in sustaining progress on the health-related SDGs in the context of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.

The SDG3 GAP and strengthened partnerships constitute a crucial asset at a time when countries are striving to protect health gains achieved so far, and to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic with more resilient health systems centred around primary health care, re-doubling efforts to achieve health and well-being for all.

Learn more

WHO Collaborating Centres in France

WHO has a long history of partnering with French experts through WHO collaborating centers in France. As of March 2025, the country is hosting 18 WHO collaborating centres, 8 of which are hosted by Institut Pasteur and its network. These centers contribute invaluable expertise to WHO on topics such as viral vaccines, bacterial infections, antibiotic resistance and mental health.

At the Institut Pasteur, the Department of Infection and Epidemiology hosts the WHO Collaborating Centre for Typing and Antibiotic Resistance of Salmonella, while the Department of Biology of Infection hosts WHO Collaborating Centre for Listeria. Both centres assist WHO in supporting its Member States to control and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases with their specific focus areas. Since the first designation in 1965, the Unité de Recherche et d'Expertise des Bactéries Pathogènes Entériques has continuously been assisting WHO in the areas of food safety and infection control. It has recently extended its support on antimicrobial resistance. Biologie des Infections group also plays a significant role in supporting WHO to strengthen the detection, control and prevention of listeriosis.

The French WHO Collaborating Centre for the Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) is an alliance of several public bodies using WHO-FIC for national use cases.

Under the Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS) leadership, the centre includes: the Centre d’épidémiologie& sur les causes médicales de Décès (CépiDC), the Agence technique de l'information sur l'hospitalisation (ATIH), the Caisse nationale d’assurance maladie (CNAM), the École des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP) and the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm)/Orphanet.

The current organization allows a full coverage of the WHO-FIC use cases in France: morbidity, mortality, e-health (electronic health records and interoperability). The Centre plays an important role in maintaining, implementing and translating into French the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD), the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and the International Classification of Health Intervention (ICHI).

From 1967 to 2021 the French WHO Collaborating Centre for the Family of International Classifications (WHO-FIC) was hosted by the Centre d’épidémiologie sur les causes médicales de Décès  (CépiDC) in the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (Inserm).

France and WHO on social media