ABOUT WHO - WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION


Today I have decided to write about WHO – the World Health Organisation.  

 It is one of the specialised organisations under the United Nations.  It is – as we all know – very much in the media and the discussions right now because of the pandemic COVID-19.  It is so because of its fantastic work to coordinate the work to stop this pandemic.  And it is also in the debate because of “gunboat president” Trump.  He is against WHO – like he seems to be against almost all forms of international cooperation ☹   
When I many years ago was studying political science at the university one of our professors gave lectures about all the international organisations.  When he came to WHO, I clearly remember his introduction to this topic. He said:

What is the main task of the WHO?  It is to ensure that we get a state of total health in the world. And when have we reached that goal?  Our professor made a short break and looked at us – his students. As none of us had an answer to his question, he gave one himself:   We have a state of total and complete health in the world, when everybody is lying in her or his bed in the morning.  And when the alarm clock rings everybody shouts:  FINALLY  !!   He added:  I think WHO has arrived to stay!
When the UN was created in 1945 everybody agreed from the start that one of the special organisations under the UN should be a World Health Organisation.  The work started right away. And on April 7, 1948,  WHO started.   This day has since been celebrated as WORLD HEALTH DAY.  A day when we all focus on the health situation in the world.
WHO got its headquarters in Geneva in Switzerland, and it has 6 regional offices around the world.  The regional office for all 53 European countries is in Copenhagen, Denmark. Its director is the Belgian doctor, Hans Kluge.
The director-general for the whole of WHO is since 2017 the Ethiopian researcher, Tedros Adhanom, b. 1965.  He is the first African on this post.  Earlier a Danish doctor, Halfdan Mahler ( 1923-2016 ) was director-general from 1973-88.  He was a specialist in tuberculosis.  Later the Norwegian doctor and former prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, was director-general from 1998-2003. 
WHO has today 194 member states, i.e. almost all countries in the world. Its two-year budget for 2020-21 is 4,8 billion dollars.  About 80 % of that amount is voluntary payments from member states, foundations, private citizens, etc. 
WHO’s main tasks are to coordinate the work to promote health all over the world. It means in particular very active campaigns against epidemics and dangerous illnesses like tuberculosis, malaria, AIDS, cancer, leprosy, measles, flu, etc.
The work consists of strengthening the cooperation and exchange of best practices between public authorities, medical institutions, doctors, etc.   And it also works hard to strengthen research in health related areas. 
If you want to know more, go to WHO’s website:  https://www.who.int


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

EU's RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD

Yesterday you got my overview of the Brexit situation.   Some people think that the EU after the UK left as a member does not mean very much, does not have much influence – and should instead start a new strategy with cooperation with countries around the world, incl. the Commonwealth. To those people I want to say:   Either this assertation is put forward to stimulate the discussion for the sake of the discussion.   Or it is an effort to start a discussion far away from the realities ☹ This inspires me to make a brief overview of the role of the EU in the world. Today I will do it point by point.   Later I will go into more details on some of the points: 1.       EU is with its 466 mio. inhabitants one of the most interesting markets in the world. This was also what the Brits were told by f.ex. Australia and India, when they tried to make these countries particularly interested in their market with 66 mio. people. 2...
Read more

MY FIRST SCHOOL DAY - April 2, 1952

Image
MY VERY FIRST SCHOOL DAY -  April 2, 1952: Today ( April 2, 2021 )   it is exactly 69 – sixtynine – years ago, since I started going to school. This is a long time ago. It was in 1952. But I still remember it, as if it were yesterday. Can you understand that ? It was a wonderful, sunny morning.   I had for such a long time been looking forward to going to school.   Ok, I could already read and I could also write reasonably.   But I wanted to learn much more. And quickly! I knew that we were 4 kids in our village, who should start that day. Two girls and two boys. I knew the other three well. Remember, we lived in a small country village, where everybody knew everybody. The first school day was always sort of a party to us.   Our parents came along to the school on that first day. And we all had put our nicest clothes on, of course. Our farm was about 1 ½ km from the school.   We walked there, my parents and I.   On the way I could...
Read more

MAY 9 - EUROPE DAY

MAY 9: This day is EUROPE DAY.   The day, when the French foreign minister Robert Schuman on behalf of his government presented the so-called Schuman Plan.   Its essence was that European countries should start a very close cooperation with strong commitments, so that war between them would be impossible in the future.   How could you make war impossible? The participating countries had to give up their sovereignty over their coal and steel production and together create joint institutions, which would be responsible for the management of coal and steel in the future.   And as coal and steel are both essentials in any war, this would make war between the countries impossible. The man behind the plan was the French official, Jean Monnet. Six countries supported the proposal right away:   France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.    And the new European institution, called the European Coal and Steel Communit...
Read more