WHO’s work remains firmly rooted in the basic principles of the right to health and well-being for all people, as outlined in our 1948 Constitution. Our Triple Billion targets outline an ambitious plan for the world to achieve good health for all using science-based policies and programmes. We direct and coordinate the world’s response to health emergencies. The objective of WHO is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. The World Health Organization is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations system.
On 8 August 2014, WHO declared that the spread of Ebola was a public health emergency; an outbreak which was believed to have started in Guinea had spread to other nearby countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. In line with a growing global trend, as documented by the OECD and established at the EU, the WHO has embraced increased public participation in health policymaking. The TDR aimed to coordinate international research into the diagnosis, treatment, and control of tropical diseases, while also building research capacity in endemic countries. During the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, Szeming Sze, a delegate from the Republic of China, conferred with Norwegian and Brazilian delegates on creating an international health organization under the auspices of the new United Nations. The agency advocates for universal health care coverage, engagement with the monitoring of public health risks, coordinating responses to health emergencies, and promoting health and well-being generally.
In January 2020 the European Union, a WHO observer, backed Taiwan's participation in WHO meetings related to the coronavirus pandemic as well as their general participation. Taiwan's main opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party), expressed their anger at being excluded arguing that disease respects neither politics nor geography. In May 2018, the WHO denied access to its annual assembly by Taiwanese media, reportedly due to demands from the PRC. In May 2009, the Department of Health of the Republic of China was invited by the WHO to attend the 62nd World Health Assembly as an observer under the name "Chinese Taipei".
Accountability and funding
The new database presents a great deal of information about mental health, substance abuse, disability, human rights, and the different policies, strategies, laws, and service standards being implemented in different countries. The database was launched on Human Rights Day, and is part of WHO's QualityRights initiative, which aims to end human rights violations against people with mental health conditions. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/AMRO) became the first region to develop and pass a policy on research for health approved in September 2009.
Careers
This incident led to accusations about the PRC's political influence over the international organization. In a 2020 interview, Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward appeared to dodge a question from RTHK reporter Yvonne Tong about Taiwan's response to the pandemic and inclusion in the WHO, blaming internet connection issues. China once again dismissed concerns over Taiwanese inclusion with the foreign minister claiming that no-one cares more about the health and wellbeing of the Taiwanese people than central government of the PRC. Pressure to allow the ROC to participate in WHO increased as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic with Taiwan's exclusion from emergency meetings concerning the outbreak bringing a rare united front from Taiwan's diverse political parties.
- The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/AMRO) became the first region to develop and pass a policy on research for health approved in September 2009.
- The WHO has played a leading role in several public health achievements, most notably the eradication of smallpox, the near-eradication of polio, and the development of an Ebola vaccine.
- The World Health Organization’s definition of neglected tropical disease has been criticized to be restrictive (focusing only on communicable diseases) and described as a form of epistemic injustice, where conditions like snakebite are forced to be framed as a medical problem.
- The WHO faced criticism from the United States’ Trump administration while “guiding the world in how to tackle the deadly” COVID-19 pandemic.
- On 5 May 2014, WHO announced that the spread of polio was a world health emergency – outbreaks of the disease in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East were considered “extraordinary”.
- The organization also helped manage the last European outbreak, which occurred in Yugoslavia in 1972.
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World Health Assembly
- In line with a growing global trend, as documented by the OECD and established at the EU, the WHO has embraced increased public participation in health policymaking.
- The ECDD is in charge of evaluating “the impact of psychoactive substances on public health” and “their dependence producing properties and potential harm to health, as well as considering their potential medical benefits and therapeutic applications.”
- One of the thirteen WHO priority areas is aimed at the prevention and reduction of “disease, disability and premature deaths from chronic noncommunicable diseases, mental disorders, violence and injuries, and visual impairment which are collectively responsible for almost 71% of all deaths worldwide”.
- In 2024, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was the organization’s major private contributor, funding 10% of its budget.
- The other official global public health campaigns marked by WHO are World Tuberculosis Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Hepatitis Day, and World AIDS Day.
The RD manages and/or supervises a staff of health and other experts at the regional offices and in specialized centres. Aside from electing the regional director, the regional committee is also in charge of setting the guidelines for the implementation, within the region, of the health and other policies adopted by the World Health Assembly. Each regional committee of the WHO consists of all the Health Department heads, in all the governments of the countries that constitute the Region.
WHO promotes the development of capacities in member states to use and produce research that addresses their national needs, including through the Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet). The Global Health Observatory (GHO) has been the WHO's main portal which provides access to data and analyses for key health themes by monitoring health situations around the globe. The WHO has published various tools for measuring and monitoring the capacity of national health systems and health workforces.
Regional offices
In 2007, the WHO organized work on pandemic influenza vaccine development through clinical trials in collaboration with many experts and health officials. This is in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other intergovernmental agreements, and means "empowering people, communities and civil society through inclusive participation in decision-making processes that affect health across the policy cycle and at all levels of the system." By 1967, the WHO intensified the global smallpox eradication campaign, contributing $2.4 million annually and adopting new disease surveillance methods at a time when 2 million people were dying of smallpox each year. The use of the word "world", rather than "international", emphasized the truly global nature of what the organization was seeking to achieve. The WHO has played a crucial role in coordinating the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential guidelines on preventive measures, supporting research on vaccines, and facilitating vaccine distribution through initiatives like COVAX.
Read the Disease Outbreak News
The first conference, in Paris, was almost solely concerned with cholera, which would remain the disease of major concern for the ISC for most of the 19th century. Under his presidency, ECOSOC initiated the international conference that established the WHO as a specialized UN agency. Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar, the first president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 1946, played a central role in founding the World Health Organization (WHO). 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's official mandate is to promote health and safety while helping the vulnerable worldwide. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
WHO is mandated under two of the international drug control conventions (Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 and Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971) to carry out scientific assessments of substances for international drug control. As of 2015update, the World Health Organization has worked within the UNAIDS network and strives to involve sections of society other than health to help deal with the economic and social effects of HIV/AIDS. By the post-pandemic period, critics claimed the WHO had exaggerated the danger, spreading "fear and confusion" rather than "immediate information". A pandemic involving the H1N1 influenza virus was declared by the then director-general Margaret Chan in April 2009.
WHO runs the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, targeted at improving health policy and systems. In terms of health services, WHO looks to improve "governance, financing, staffing and management" and the availability and quality of evidence and research to guide policy. An international convention on pandemic prevention and preparedness is being actively considered. Security Council resolution aimed at promoting nonviolent international cooperation during the pandemic, and mentioning the WHO. On 30 January the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), considered a "call to action" and "last resort" measure for the international community and a pandemic on 11 March.
Health policy
One of the thirteen WHO priority areas is aimed at the prevention and reduction of "disease, disability and premature deaths from chronic noncommunicable diseases, mental disorders, violence and injuries, and visual impairment which are collectively responsible for almost 71% of all deaths worldwide". The World Health Organization's definition of neglected tropical disease has been criticized to be restrictive (focusing only on communicable diseases) and described as a form of epistemic injustice, where conditions like snakebite are forced to be framed as a medical problem. At the time, the World Health Assembly president, Guyana's Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy, condemned Pope Benedict's opposition to contraception, saying he was trying to "create confusion" and "impede" proven strategies in the battle against the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated the eradication programme has saved millions from deadly disease.
The main functions of WHO country offices include being the primary adviser of that country's government in matters of health and pharmaceutical policies. The country office consists of the WR, and several health and other experts, both foreign and local, as well as the necessary support staff. As of 2010update, the only WHO Representative outside Europe to be a national of that country was for the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ("Libya"); all other staff was international. During the first two years of the pandemic, American funding of the WHO declined by a quarter, although it is expected to increase during 2022 and 2023. There were 189 partnerships with international NGOs in formal "official relations" – the rest being considered informal in character. As of 2002update, a total of 473 nongovernmental organizations (NGO) had some form of partnership with WHO.
Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation of accurate statistics on the spread and morbidity of disease. The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 51 countries of the United Nations, and by 10 other countries, on 22 July 1946. After failing to get a resolution passed on the subject, Alger Hiss, the secretary general of the conference, recommended using a declaration to establish such an organization.
Since 1999, regional directors felicebet bonus serve for a once-renewable five-year term, and typically take their position on 1 February. The board must approve such appointments, although as of 2004, it had never over-ruled the preference of a regional committee. Each region has a regional committee, which generally meets once a year, normally in the autumn.
In 2024, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was the organization's major private contributor, funding 10% of its budget. The strong position of the regional offices has been criticized in WHO history for undermining its effectiveness and led to unsuccessful attempts to integrate them more strongly within 'One WHO'. The regional committee also serves as a progress review board for the actions of WHO within the Region.citation needed The regional director is effectively the head of WHO for his or her region.
Our team of 8000+ professionals includes the world’s leading public health experts, including doctors, epidemiologists, scientists and managers. World Health Organization Prizes and Awards are given to recognize major achievements in public health. On 21 October 2017, the director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appointed the then Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador to help promote the fight against non-communicable diseases. The WHO regularly publishes a World Health Report, its leading publication, including an expert assessment of a specific global health topic. Recent themes have been vector-borne diseases (2014), healthy ageing (2012) and drug resistance (2011). Partners work together to put international principles for aid effectiveness and development co-operation into practice in the health sector.
