World Health Organization

World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible

for international public health.[1] The WHO Constitution, which establishes the agency's governing
structure and principles, states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest
possible level of health."[2] It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, with six semi-autonomous
regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.
The WHO was established by constitution on 7 April 1948,[3] which is commemorated as World
Health Day.[4] The first meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the agency's governing body,
took place on 24 July 1948. The WHO incorporated the assets, personnel, and duties of the League
of Nations' Health Organisation and the Office International d'Hygiène Publique, including
the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).[5] Its work began in earnest in 1951 following a
significant infusion of financial and technical resources.[6]
The WHO's broad mandate includes advocating for universal healthcare, monitoring public health
risks, coordinating responses to health emergencies, and promoting human health and well being.
[7]
It provides technical assistance to countries, sets international health standards and guidelines,
and collects data on global health issues through the World Health Survey. Its flagship publication,
the World Health Report, provides expert assessments of global health topics and health statistics
on all nations.[8] The WHO also serves as a forum for summits and discussions on health issues.[1]
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.
Its current priorities include communicable diseases,
particularly HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; non-communicable diseases such as heart
disease and cancer; healthy diet, nutrition, and food security; occupational health; and substance
abuse.
The WHA, composed of representatives from all 194 member states, serves as the agency's
supreme decision-making body. It also elects and advises an Executive Board made up of 34 health
specialists. The WHA convenes annually and is responsible for selecting the Director-General,
setting goals and priorities, and approving the WHO's budget and activities. The current Director-
General is Tedros Adhanom, former Health Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, who began his
five-year term on 1 July 2017.[9]
The WHO relies on contributions from member states (both assessed and voluntary) and private
donors for funding. As of 2018, it has a budget of over $4.2 billion, a large part of which comes from
voluntary contributions from member states.[1] Contributions are assessed by a formula that includes
GDP per capita. In 2018–19, the US contributed 15.9% of the WHO's $5.6 billion budget
(additionally, American philanthropist Bill Gates provides 9.4% of the funding through
his foundation), the EU and its member states contributed 11%, while China contributed 0.2%.[10] The
agency is part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group.
History and development[edit]

Origins[edit]
The International Sanitary Conferences, originally held on 23 June 1851, were the first predecessors
of the WHO. A series of 14 conferences that lasted from 1851 to 1938, the International Sanitary
Conferences worked to combat many diseases, chief among them cholera, yellow fever, and
the bubonic plague. The conferences were largely ineffective until the seventh, in 1892; when an
International Sanitary Convention that dealt with cholera was passed.
Five years later, a convention for the plague was signed.[11] In part as a result of the successes of the
Conferences, the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau (1902), and the Office International d'Hygiène
Publique (1907) were soon founded. When the League of Nations was formed in 1920, they
established the Health Organization of the League of Nations. After World War II, the United Nations
absorbed all the other health organizations, to form the WHO.[12]
Establishment[edit]
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. 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. Sze and other delegates
lobbied and a declaration passed calling for an international conference on health.[13] The use of the
word "world", rather than "international", emphasized the truly global nature of what the organization
was seeking to achieve.[14] 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.[15] It thus became the
first specialized agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed.[16] Its constitution
formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, when it was ratified by the
26th member state.[15]
The first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget
of US$5 million (then GB£1,250,000) for the 1949 year. Andrija Štampar was the Assembly's first
president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed Director-General of WHO, having served as
Executive Secretary during the planning stages.[14] Its first priorities were to control the spread
of malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve maternal and child
health, nutrition and environmental hygiene.[17] Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation
of accurate statistics on the spread and morbidity of disease.[14] The logo of the World Health
Organization features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing.[18]

World Health Organization

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible

History and development[edit]

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