Health systems: improving performance

1. In the letter convening the Fifty-third World Health Assembly, Member States were informed of the Director-General’s decision to publish The world health report 2000 after the Health Assembly, in order to allow for its publication in all six official languages. The intention is to launch the report as close as possible to 19 June 2000. This date commemorates the opening of the International Health Conference in New York in 1946. The conference was a historic event which decided that the planned new specialized agency for health within the United Nations system would be known as the World Health Organization, and agreed on WHO’s Constitution. The present document provides an overview of the report to assist delegations in their preparations for the Health Assembly.