The World Health Organization (WHO) should change its dogmatic approach that hinders its effectiveness in addressing global health issues.
In a panel organized by the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA), Roger Bate, a global health policy expert at the International Center for Law and Economics, called for a reduction in WHO leadership, a shift of control from Geneva to field offices and a comprehensive overhaul.
“The WHO needs fundamental reform,” said Bate, noting that the WHO has “failed repeatedly” in areas ranging from COVID-19 response to tobacco policy.
Martin Cullip, an international fellow at TPA’s Consumer Center, described the FCTC as “a good idea that has gone terribly wrong.” He said: “We’ve lost 20 years of potential progress because of rigid ideology.”
The TPA specifically highlighted the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control’s (FCTC), claiming that its two decades of tobacco control efforts have stagnated, marked by missed opportunities and a resistance to innovation.
The WHO commemorated the 20th anniversary of the FCTC in February 2025. The global health treaty, ratified by 183 countries, centers on the MPOWER strategy, which emphasizes measures such as taxation, advertising bans, and smoking restrictions.
“If the organization cannot evolve to incorporate modern science and real-world solutions, then it risks becoming obsolete,” Bate said.
Bate also criticized the WHO’s political nature and its Geneva bureaucracy, noting that it is now at least 60-percent funded by “powerful vested interests,” including pharmaceutical companies and wealthy individuals with “very strong and strict agendas.”
David Williams, president of the TPA, echoed these concerns, criticizing the WHO FCTC for “squandering good opportunities in tobacco harm reduction.”
Williams shared his personal connection to the issue, expressing regret that his father didn’t have access to harm reduction products like vaping, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches in the 1970s and 80s. “That’s why I’m involved in this on a personal level. I think there is a missed opportunity,” he said.
He stressed the potential to save lives and money by offering smokers less harmful alternatives and accurate information. “There’s just no reason why in 2025, we aren’t embracing this innovation in this market,” Williams said.
Drawing a parallel to environmental efforts, Williams questioned the WHO’s selective approach to harm reduction. “When [the United Nations talks] about electric vehicles and other things, why not harm reduction when it comes to smoking? We have to embrace new technologies, and we can’t be selective because we just don’t happen to like an industry or some players in the industry,” he argued.
Reacting to the TPA discussion, Dr. Lorenzo Mata Jr., president of the Philippine advocacy group Quit for Good, agreed that the FCTC’s “prohibitionist policy” has marginalized millions of smokers without effectively aiding cessation.
