GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT · YOUTH AGENCY
The future of health is being decided now.
The decisions shaping health systems today will outlast the people who make them. Young people will inherit their consequences, enter the workforce that implements them, and eventually lead the institutions responsible for them. They also bring expertise and lived experience that health policy needs now—not only in the future.
At InciSioN, we believe meaningful youth engagement should strengthen the questions asked, the evidence considered, the voices involved and the accountability that follows.
THE NEXT GENERATION OF HEALTH SYSTEMS
Who will sustain the institutions we rely on?
Workforce succession is not an abstract future concern. Health systems depend on the continuous transfer of expertise, responsibility and institutional memory. Emergencies, rapid organisational changes, retirement and shifting population needs make that continuity even more important.
Preparing future leadership should happen alongside—not after—today’s decisions. Intergenerational governance allows experienced leaders and emerging professionals to work together before knowledge is lost, new responsibilities arrive or crises expose gaps in preparedness.
WHO STAFF · PROVISIONAL JUNE 2026 PROJECTION
Aged 20–29
WHO projected that 0.6% of its global staff would be aged 20–29 and approximately 48.2% would be aged 50 or older in June 2026.
Provisional WHO employee headcount projection, not an observed average age or imminent-retirement forecast. WHO EB158/52 Add.1 (Jan 2026), para. 37 ↗
NATIONAL MEDICAL WORKFORCES · 122 COUNTRIES
Doctors older than 55
Across the latest available national data from 122 countries, WHO reported that nearly a quarter of doctors were older than 55.
National doctor workforces, not WHO employees. WHO workforce update (19 Oct 2026) ↗
KNOWLEDGE THAT MODELS CANNOT SUPPLY ALONE
Good evidence begins with the right questions.
Quantitative evidence is indispensable to global health. Models can estimate disease burden, compare interventions and inform resource allocation. But even a sophisticated model depends on which questions are asked, which outcomes are valued, which assumptions are made and what data are available.
People living with the consequences of policy can identify conditions datasets miss: how care is accessed, why services are avoided, hidden costs, and why an otherwise sound intervention fails. Lived experience does not replace scientific evidence; it helps frame, interpret and test it.
Travel time to surgical care
Geospatial models can estimate distance, journey times and service distribution—and reveal areas with weak coverage.
Barriers behind the numbers
Patients and frontline workers can explain transport costs, caregiving needs, documentation barriers and the effect of unreliable roads.
COMPLEMENTARY KNOWLEDGE
Together, they can change the problem definition.
A technically reachable service may still be inaccessible in practice. Combining evidence helps policymakers design responses to the actual constraints people face.
Illustrative surgical-access example · informed by WHO’s 2023 meaningful-engagement framework ↗
A TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
Different disciplines are necessary. Different ways of knowing are essential.
An interdisciplinary team might bring together clinical medicine, epidemiology, engineering, economics and policy. Transdisciplinary work goes further: it involves people outside traditional institutional boundaries in defining problems and developing responses.
Consider a climate-resilient hospital plan. Engineers and economists are essential, but so are nurses, surgical teams, patients, local communities and those who know what happens when power fails or roads become impassable.
Conceptual framework prepared for InciSioN · not a formal WHO diagram.
FROM PARTICIPATION TO AGENCY
Being heard is not the same as having influence.
An invitation to speak may increase visibility without changing a decision. Meaningful engagement asks a more demanding question: do participants have the information, opportunity, support and institutional pathway to affect the process itself?
A recommendation can be rejected for valid reasons. But contributors should not be left unable to tell whether it was considered. In 2024, the World Health Assembly endorsed resolution WHA77.2 calling for sustained, meaningful social participation in health decisions.
InciSioN explanatory progression, not an official WHO participation ladder and not a claim of voting rights. Read the WHA77.2 social participation update ↗
UNDERSTANDING WHO
Who decides, who advises, who implements?
WHO is an intergovernmental organisation. Its Member States make collective decisions through the World Health Assembly. The Executive Board advises and facilitates its work, while the Secretariat performs technical, administrative and programme functions across the headquarters, regional and country levels.
Youth perspectives can enter WHO through several distinct channels—including the WHO Youth Council, regional mechanisms, Member State youth-delegate programmes and eligible partnerships. Participation should not be confused with the authority to adopt WHO policy.
MEMBER STATES DECIDE
World Health Assembly
Sets WHO policy and approves the programme budget.
ADVISES & FACILITATES
Executive Board
Supports the work of the Assembly and implements its decisions.
TECHNICAL & PROGRAMMATIC WORK
WHO Secretariat
Coordinates WHO operations and develops technical work.
DIFFERENT ROLE · ADVISORY NETWORK
WHO Youth Council
Provides youth perspectives and advice to WHO leadership. It does not adopt WHO policy, approve budgets or exercise Member State decision-making authority.
Simplified educational chart based on WHO governance material and the Youth Council Terms of Reference ↗. Not an official WHO organigram.
OUR PRINCIPAL PUBLIC EXAMPLE
Youth expertise inside global health dialogue.
INCiSioN · WHO YOUTH COUNCIL MEMBER
One of 25 member organisations, 2026–2028
InciSioN (International Student Surgical Network) is a member organisation of the WHO Youth Council for its 2026–2028 term. The Council brings together 25 youth-led and youth-serving organisations from diverse fields to advise WHO leadership and contribute perspectives on global health priorities. InciSioN brings a global surgery and health-systems perspective to this wider intergenerational dialogue.
See WHO’s official list of Council member organisations ↗
Membership is an advisory engagement and does not imply WHO endorsement of InciSioN’s independent positions.
WHO Youth Council identity: once logo use is approved by the WHO Secretariat, insert the approved Council visual identifier here at a modest size, accompanied by “WHO hosted Network”.
WHO established the Youth Council to amplify young people’s experiences and expertise. It is a network of youth-led and youth-serving organisations that advises and engages with WHO leadership and supports the development of youth-engagement initiatives.
InciSioN is a member of the WHO Youth Council. Our contribution is a global-surgery and broader health-systems perspective, grounded in the experiences of students, trainees and early-career professionals across the network.
The Council’s positions and projects belong to the collective body. Membership does not imply that InciSioN directs WHO policy or that every InciSioN member holds an individual WHO appointment.
11 new and 14 returning organisations across health and non-health disciplines. The Council advises WHO leadership and provides a platform for youth engagement and emerging initiatives.
Membership figures from WHO’s public update, 9 October 2026. Source ↗
THE COUNCIL’S THREE WORKING AREAS
A broader view of what shapes health.
The Council’s working areas span the determinants of health as well as service delivery. These are WHO Youth Council working groups, not InciSioN departments; our membership does not mean we independently lead each area.
Promoting Health Education and Literacy
Young people’s involvement in making health education more relevant and accessible, including work related to noncommunicable diseases, antimicrobial resistance and mental health.
Accessibility and Equity
The structural, financial, social and digital barriers that prevent equitable care, including disability inclusion and the needs of marginalised populations.
Planetary Health
The connections among climate change, pollution, human health, environmental resilience and One Health, bringing youth perspectives into technical dialogue.
Working-group descriptions: WHO Youth Council ↗ and October 2026 public update ↗.
FROM PRINCIPLE TO PUBLIC PRACTICE
Declarations, deliberation and dialogue.
Publicly documented Council initiatives show different ways young people can contribute: joint statements, structured deliberation and intergenerational exchanges. These are examples of activities and outputs—not automatic proof that WHO adopted every recommendation.
Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies
The Council published 10 calls to action on health education, accessible and sustainable healthcare, and youth leadership. A collective Council publication.
AI, youth and mental health deliberation
A public WHO Youth Council and Stanford programme using moderated, informed small-group discussion. InciSioN is named among numerous co-hosts; the listing does not establish policy adoption.
NextGen × NowGen
A WHO Youth Council WHA79 side event on intergenerational leadership in planetary-health governance. WHO lists Slovenia, IFMSA and GAIN/Act4Food among the co-hosts.
A new 2026–2028 term
WHO publicly confirmed 11 new and 14 returning organisations. The new term built on lessons from earlier work; internal goals are not reproduced here.
InciSioN’S PERSPECTIVE
Surgery is a health-systems issue.
Surgical, obstetric, trauma and anaesthesia care depend on much more than operating theatres. They are shaped by financing, workforce policy, emergency preparedness, referral systems, supply chains, environmental resilience and unequal access to essential services.
InciSioN connects experiences from students, trainees and early-career professionals in global surgery with wider debates on universal health coverage and health-systems strengthening. We see intergenerational participation as one means of improving present decisions while developing future institutional capacity.
Young professionals should not have to wait until senior positions before their practical knowledge becomes relevant. Equally, experienced leaders remain indispensable to designing and sustaining the transition.
GLOBAL SURGERY IS A SYSTEMS QUESTION
Clinical care is only one part of the infrastructure that makes surgical access possible.
ACCOUNTABLE LEADERSHIP ACROSS GENERATIONS
Better decisions require shared responsibility.
We support health governance that values technical evidence, lived experience and diverse forms of expertise; provides meaningful opportunities to shape policy; and remains answerable to those who implement decisions and live with their long-term effects. Intergenerational engagement is not a ceremonial addition. Done seriously, it is part of how institutions learn, adapt and remain capable of serving future populations.
SOURCES & FURTHER READING
Explore the evidence.
This page combines InciSioN’s independent public position with official WHO sources. Dates, denominators and the Council’s advisory status matter when interpreting the evidence.
Editorial note: WHO materials are cited as sources. This is an InciSioN webpage, not a WHO policy statement or an assertion of WHO endorsement.