
World Health Organization – WHO
Overview
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Founded Date April 7, 1948
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Sectors Health
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Posted Jobs 33
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Viewed 999
Company Description
About World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
The WHO was established on April 7, 1948, and convened its first meeting on July 24 of that year. It incorporated the assets, personnel, and duties of the League of Nations’ Health Organization and the Paris-based Office International d’Hygiène Publique, including the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The agency’s work began in earnest in 1951 after a significant infusion of financial and technical resources.
The official mission of the World Health Organization is to support global health and safety while aiding the weak. It establishes worldwide health standards, gathers information on global health concerns, offers technical support to nations, and facilitates debates on health-related science and policy. The World Health Report, its official publication, offers evaluations of global health issues.
A number of significant advancements in public health have been made possible thanks in large part to the WHO, including the creation of an Ebola vaccine, the near-eradication of polio, and the eradication of smallpox. Priorities at the moment include non-communicable illnesses like cancer and heart disease; occupational health; substance misuse; a healthy diet, nutrition, and food security; and communicable diseases including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria, and tuberculosis. The organization supports encouraging health and well-being in general, organizing responses to medical emergencies, monitoring public health threats, and providing universal access to health care.
The WHO is governed by the World Health Assembly (WHA), which is composed of its 194 member states. The WHA elects and advises an executive board made up of 34 health specialists; selects the WHO’s chief administrator, the director-general (currently Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia); sets goals and priorities; and approves the budget and activities. The WHO is funded primarily by contributions from member states (both assessed and voluntary), followed by private donors. Its total approved budget for 2020–2021 is over $7.2 billion., while the approved budget for 2022–2023 is over $6.2 billion.
Overall Priority
The WHO’s Constitution states that its objective “is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health”.
The WHO fulfils this objective through its functions as defined in its Constitution: (a) To act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work; (b) To establish and maintain effective collaboration with the United Nations, specialized agencies, governmental health administrations, professional groups and such other organizations as may be deemed appropriate; (c) To assist Governments, upon request, in strengthening health services; (d) To furnish appropriate technical assistance and, in emergencies, necessary aid upon the request or acceptance of Governments; (e) To provide or assist in providing, upon the request of the United Nations, health services and facilities to special groups, such as the peoples of trust territories; (f) To establish and maintain such administrative and technical services as may be required, including epidemiological and statistical services; (g) To stimulate and advance work to eradicate epidemic, endemic and other diseases; (h) To promote, in co-operation with other specialized agencies where necessary, the prevention of accidental injuries; (i) To promote, in co-operation with other specialized agencies where necessary, the improvement of nutrition, housing, sanitation, recreation, economic or working conditions and other aspects of environmental hygiene; (j) To promote co-operation among scientific and professional groups which contribute to the advancement of health; (k) To propose conventions, agreements and regulations, and make recommendations with respect to international health matters and to perform (Article 2 of the Constitution).
As of 2012, the WHO has defined its role in public health as follows:
- providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed;
- shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation, and dissemination of valuable knowledge;
- setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their implementation;
- articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options;
- providing technical support, catalysing change, and building sustainable institutional capacity; and
- monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.
- CRVS (civil registration and vital statistics) to provide monitoring of vital events (birth, death, wedding, divorce).
Since the late 20th century, the rise of new actors engaged in global health—such as the World Bank, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and dozens of public-private partnerships for global health—have weakened the WHO’s role as a coordinator and policy leader in the field; subsequently, there are various proposals to reform or reorient the WHO’s role and priorities in public health, ranging from narrowing its mandate to strengthening its independence and authority.
Membership
As of January 2021, the WHO has 194 member states: all member states of the United Nations except for Liechtenstein (192 countries), plus the Cook Islands and Niue. A state becomes a full member of WHO by ratifying the treaty known as the Constitution of the World Health Organization. As of January 2021, it also had two associate members, Puerto Rico and Tokelau. The WHO two-year budget for 2022–2023 is paid by its 194 members and 2 associate members. Several other countries have been granted observer status. Palestine is an observer as a “national liberation movement” recognized by the League of Arab States under United Nations Resolution 3118. The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (or Order of Malta) also attends on an observer basis. The Holy See attends as an observer, and its participation as “non-Member State Observer” was formalized by an Assembly resolution in 2021. The government of Taiwan was allowed to participate under the designation “Chinese Taipei” as an observer from 2009 to 2016, but has not been invited again since.
WHO member states appoint delegations to the World Health Assembly, the WHO’s supreme decision-making body. All UN member states are eligible for WHO membership, and, according to the WHO website, “other countries may be admitted as members when their application has been approved by a simple majority vote of the World Health Assembly”. The World Health Assembly is attended by delegations from all member states, and determines the policies of the organization.
The executive board is composed of members technically qualified in health and gives effect to the decisions and policies of the World Health Assembly. In addition, the UN observer organizations International Committee of the Red Cross and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have entered into “official relations” with WHO and are invited as observers. In the World Health Assembly, they are seated alongside the other NGOs.