The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and
coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. As such the WHO is responsible for providing
leadership on global health matters, and for providing the tools that will
enable countries and international agencies to implement the policies that it
develops. In order to achieve this goal, the WHO requires technical and
scientific guidance as well as direct support to be able to undertake the wide
range of tasks that are necessary for international health development. Some of this support is provided by a
network of Collaborating Centres.
According to the WHO definition, a Collaborating Centre is:
...an institution designated by the
Director-General of WHO to form part of an inter-institutional collaborative
network set up by WHO in support of its programme at the country, intercountry,
regional, interregional and global levels, as appropriate. But there is more to
it than that. In line with the WHO policy and strategy of technical
cooperation, a WHO collaborating centre must also participate in the
strengthening of country resources, in terms of information, services, research
and training, in support of national health development.
WHO Collaborating
Centre for the Protection of Water Quality and Human Health Brief history
The Robens
Institute, at the University of Surrey, was first designated as a WHO Collaborating
Centre in 1988 with the specific title of Collaborating Centre for the
Protection of Drinking-Water Quality and Human Health. The title of the designation was a
reflection of the support given by the Robens Institute to the WHO during the
development of the 2nd edition of the WHO Guidelines for Drinking
Water Quality, and of the work it was doing in countries of Central and South
America to create sustainable drinking-water supplies to rural communities.
Some of the developments made by the staff at the Institute and the experiences
they gained from their field work are present in Volume 3 of the
Guidelines. The Robens Institute was re-designated
under the same title in 1993.
After 1993
the expertise of the team within the Collaborating
Centre expanded to include both recreational water quality assessment and coastal management, and
groundwater resource management. This expansion gave the
Robens Institute the capacity to provide support to number of WHO initiatives
in these areas, particularly the area of health risks associated with exposure
to recreational water.
In 1996,
the University of Surrey reorganised its management from a Faculty
based to a School based structure. This
led to many departments, including the Robens Institute, reorganising their
activities to best harness the expertise within the component parts. As a consequence of the reorganization it became
apparent that the previous Collaborating Centre designation may have reflected
too narrow a definition of the group's activities and may have limited the
potential of the Centre to involve other players associated with the group both
within and outside the University. It
was thus felt that there a much broader range of expertise could contribute to
the work of WHO if the remit of the Collaborating Centre was broadened
appropriately.
In 1997,
the application for redesignation was made on the basis the broader range of expertise
that was available and a request was made for the title to be changed so as to
reflect the new scope of the Centre. The redesignation of the Centre was
approved by the WHO and a new title was issued: WHO Collaborating Centre for
Protection of Water Quality and Human Health. At the same time, the designation was transferred from the former
Robens Institute to the University of Surrey in order to facilitate inputs from
several departments. The University was
redesignated as a Collaborating Centre with the same title in 2002. The report of our activities during the four
years from 2002 can be seen by clicking on the link to Annex 4 of the redesignation form .
Current status
The
University was redesignated in 2006 for a further four years. Ordinarily, the WHO will award a designation
to a single department or group within a larger institution where the expertise
that the WHO requires is housed. This
was the situation at the University of Surrey when the designation was linked
specifically to the Robens Institute.
The transfer of the Collaborating Centre to the University of Surrey was
carried out in order to incorporate the expertise of two departments and to
permit the inputs from others.
The
organisational structure of the Collaborating Centre can be viewed by clicking
on the link to Annex 1 of the
redesignation form. The current Head of the Centre is
Professor C. Snowdon, the Vice Chancellor of the University. Strategic management of the Centre is the
responsibility of the Director, Professor Gareth Rees, and the activities are
carried out by Centre for Environmental Health Engineering (CEHE) and the
Robens Centre for Public and Environmental Health (RCPEH).
The terms
of reference for the Collaborating Centre and the proposed workplan can be
viewed by clicking on the link to Annex 5
of the redesignation form.
