What does the World Health Organisation WHO do?

When was the WHO formed?

How is the WHO funded?

WHO history

The World Health Organization WHO is a United Nations body that was founded in 1948. Its mission is the promotion of health around the globe. The WHO has a range of important responsibilities, including the management of the response to major global health priorities such as tuberculosis and malaria, and is supporting access to health care around the world.

The WHO is based in Switzerland, Geneva, and has an additional six regional offices in Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific; plus hundreds field offices around the globe. The WHO employs approximately 7,000 staff, from doctors, scientists and epidemiologists to admin staff and professional experts.

It’s the WHO’s 194 United Nations Member States that select representatives for the organisation’s governing body called the World Health Assembly which is responsible for setting organisations priorities and its budget of more than $4.8 billion.

What does the WHO do?

The WHO has focussed on some of the world’s most persistent health issues and emergencies. The UN body for example successfully eliminated smallpox and eliminated polio, took the lead in addressing the SARS outbreak and played a vital role in the fight against the H1N1 influenza outbreak and the Ebola outbreak. The organisation supports the worldwide administration of measles vaccines and it was the WHO who initiated a joint UN programme on HIV/AIDS.

Part of the WHOs strategy and priorities for the coming years are rooted in the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, are among others ensuring that more than one billion people enjoy better health and well-being, including protection from non-infectious diseases such as cancer.

How is the WHO funded?

The UN’s World Health Organization is funded by its Member States and donors. Member States pay annual fees which are calculated based on the country’s population and income. Of course, Members can provide voluntary contributions; these additional funds actually make up the bulk of the WHOs budget.

Ultimately, being part of the United Nations, the power of the WHO is limited as it operates at the discretion of governments and it’s paying Member States.

Not only does the WHO rely on its Member States to meet budgetary needs but also on receiving information from Member States allowing the organisation to monitor and report crises and emergency outbreaks in a timely manner. In the past, Member States have been hesitant to report such emergencies and outbreaks as they are often afraid of economic consequences they might face.

Aiming to address these shortfalls, the WHO issued a non-binding guidance to its Member States on how they should respond to possible emergencies, hoping this would encourage respective Member States to report outbreaks in a timely manner. However, as we sadly saw with the current COVID 19 outbreak theory and practice are indeed two different pairs of shoes.

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