WHO's OpenWHO.org learning platform was deeply honoured to be recognized as the Learning Platform of the Year at the 2023 Learning Awards. The awards are billed as "the highest accolade you can receive in workplace learning and development."

OpenWHO was named the Gold Winner at a ceremony in London, England, on 16 February 2023, after being selected among the 8 Finalists from hundreds of entries worldwide. Gold is the highest level awarded and has the unanimous vote of all judges.

"Incredible presentation. Clear business impact, big outreach, passionate about what they do, clear development plan for the future to make it more innovative and inclusive. Despite of many blockers for them they are creative in engaging their users through various ways. They are continuously evaluating the efficiency of the platform and iterating to make it valuable for their users," the judges said in their feedback.

The award was based on a written submission, presentation and question and answer session before a judging panel, who were looking for "evidence of a platform's alignment to a clear organisational need, stakeholder buy-in, learner engagement and adoption, and most importantly, impact on performance and what the platform has helped the organisation to achieve."

The OpenWHO team suggested that the free online learning platform deserved recognition in view of its significant reach and impact during its first pandemic test: "We have empowered millions of people across the globe with knowledge to protect themselves and their communities, furthering WHO's mission and establishing OpenWHO's role as an effective knowledge-transfer platform for future pandemics," the submission said.

As of February 2023, the OpenWHO learning platform provides nearly 200 self-paced public health courses from WHO experts, including 46 for the COVID-19 pandemic. Courses are available across 65 languages, with a total of 7.5 million enrolments.