The World Health Assembly commences Monday 20 May.  Among the critical issues that member states will discuss:  non-communicable diseases, gender, climate change, universal health coverage and development goals from 2015.  PHM’s group of WHO ‘watchers’ have spent the last week working through the agenda and evaluating the proposals coming before the Assembly against the principles of the People’s Charter for Health (see WHO Watch website).  The Watchers are sharing their comments with the government representatives attending the Assembly.  While big countries often send large delegations to the WHA some small countries are somewhat limited in their capacity to cover the whole agenda and many delegates have commented that the PHM analysis has been useful for them.  The Watchers will also make statements from the floor on particular topics and will find informal opportunities to share their analysis with the delegates.