WHO

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Formation: 7 April 1948.

Head quarters: Geneva, Switzerland.

WHO has six semi-autonomous regional offices

1. Southeast Asia formed in Jan 1949.

Head quarters : New Delhi,INDIA.

2. Eastern Mediterranean formed in July 1949.
3. America’s formed in July 1949.

Head quarters : Washington DC,USA.

4. Africa formed in 1952.

Head quarters : Brazzaville, Republic of CONGO.

5. Western Pacific formed in 1952.

Head quarters : Manila, PHILIPPINES.

6. Europe formed in 1957.

Head quarters : located temporarily in Geneva in 1952, it was moved to its final location in Copenhagen in 1957.

WHO has 150 regional offices worldwide.

Parent Organization: United Nations economic and social council (ECOSOC).

WHO is a specialised agency under UNITED NATIONS (UN).

WHA- World Health Assembly.

Who is the governing forum of the WHO.

It is the world’s highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states.

WHA helds a annual assembly for 3 weeks a year where representatives of members and oberserver status agencies attend.The main tasks of the WHA are to decide major policy questions, as well as to approve the WHO work programme and budget and elect its Director-General (every fifth year) and annually to elect ten members to renew part of its Executive Board.The Executive Board must have an equitable geographic distribution, and “shall be elected for three years and may be re-elected… The Board shall meet at least twice a year and shall determine the place of each meeting.”

The first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget 5 million USD for the 1949 year. Andrija Stampar was the Assembly’s first president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed as first Director-General of WHO.

The original membership of the WHA, at the first assembly held in 1948, numbered 55 member states.

Until now WHA had completed 73 annual assemblies.

73 was held virtually on 18-19 may 2020 due to covid-19 pandemic,with current President of WHA as Ms Keva Bain, Director-General of WHO as Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

A budget of 4804.4 million USD was proposed for 2020-2021.

GREAT PANDEMICS AND EPIDEMICS FOUGHT BY WHO

1957    Asian flu influenza pandemic    

1968    Hong Kong flu influenza pandemic    

1981    HIV/AIDS pandemic

1999   Nipha virus    

2003    SARS pandemic    

2009    Swine flu 

2012    MERS epidemic 

2013  West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic 

2014   Ebola

2015    Zika virus pandemic

2018  Return of Ebola.

2019  Covid-19.

The General Programme of Work:

                  The general programme of work sets out leadership priorities that will both define the key areas in which WHO seeks to exert its influence in the world of global health and drive the way work is carried out across and between the different levels of the Secretariat.

Second, the general programme of work sets the direction for more effective governance by Member States, as well as a stronger directing and coordinating role for WHO in global health governance.

Lastly, through a clear results chain, it explains how WHO’s work will be organized over the next six years; how the work of the Organization contributes to the achievement of a clearly defined set of outcomes and impacts; and the means by which WHO can be held accountable for the way resources are used to achieve specified results. The three programme budgets in the period set out the details of what will be achieved during each biennium.

Until now we have 12 general programme of works completed and Thirteenth General Programme of Work 2019−2023 is going on.

SUSTAINABLE GOALS

The SDGs were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 and look to 2030. They are far broader in scope than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which focused on a narrow set of disease-specific health targets for 2015.

Goal 3 of the SDGs is to: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

ROLE of INDIA in WHO

India became a party to the WHO Constitution on 12 January 1948. The first session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia was held on 4-5 October 1948 in the office of the Indian Minister of Health. It was inaugurated by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India and was addressed by the WHO Director-General, Dr Brock Chisholm. 

At present we have Soumya Swaminathan as 

deputy Director-General and Dr.Harsha vardan goel minister of health and family welfare,INDIA was elected as Chair of World Health Organization’s Executive Board on 22 may 2020.

How have WHO and India worked together in the COVID-19 pandemic?

According to Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO country representative in India, “India is at a crucial juncture in its fight against COVID-19. It is a moment that must be fully seized. WHO has been working closely with MoHFW and various state governments on preparedness and response measures for COVID-19, including surveillance and contact tracing; laboratory and research protocols; risk communications; hospital preparedness; training on infection prevention and control and cluster containment plan. WHO stands together in solidarity with the government in its firm resolve to overcome this unprecedented challenge.”

REPORTS

world health report and world health statistics are two major annual reports from WHO.

THANKS FOR READING.

Sources: Wikipedia,WHO official site,internet.

-Soma Shiva