ICN and WHO: a history of mutual cooperation and action

Groundwork for cooperation between the International Council of Nurses (ICN), a nongovernmental organization, and the World Health Organization (WHO) actually started a year before WHO became a reality. At the Ninth ICN Congress in Atlantic City (USA) in 1947, Dr Brock Chisholm, then executive secretary of WHO's Interim Commission, prophesied that ICN would play an important future role in improving international health and urged that plans be formulated as to how the two organizations could best work together. When ICN began its "official relationship" with WHO in 1948, it pledged support of WHO's objectives and activities worldwide, which has continued unabated to the present day.