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Outline the role of WHO
Est ‘48, Geneva. Part of UN. Roles: direct and coordinate international health within the UN system.
Increase international cooperation of global health threats e.g. COVID19.
Prioritises controlling epidemics and pandemics.
Assists in providing pure water supplies, sanitation systems and health education in rural populations.
Promotes mass campaigns in used of vaccines, insecticides e.g. World Malaria Day.
What is some of the main work of WHO
Responsible for international classification of disease, advises national ministries of health on technical issues, advises on prevention and treatment on both communicable and non-communicable diseases.
Give examples of some of WHO’s successes and criticisms.
1970s: eradication of smallpox
1988: launched its global polio eradication initiative and by 2006 number of cases reduced by >99%.
Coordinated responses to Ebola outbreak in W.Africa to increase the number of treatment centres in the region, helping to find a vaccine and implementing measures to prevent transmission of disease to other countries e.g. airport controls for people travelling from at-risk areas.
Worked in partnership with other agencies to achieve the health related Millennium Development Goals e.g. target on access to safe drinking water achieved.
However were criticised during COVID, Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response argue that WHO should have announced the outbreak an international emergency a week earlier than it did.
What are some other international organisations and their roles?
UNAIDs
UN population fund: reproductive, adolescent and maternal health.
UN children’s fund (UNICEF): helps mothers an children access food, cleaner water and vaccinations.
World Bank: provides loans to less developed countries for health programmes, invest in a countries health system.
(Remember UN= advisory role, not everyone is members of WB).
What is the role of NGOs in health?
Non-profut groups indepedent from governments. Promote global health research and being increasingly promoted as alternative health care in LICs especially where govs cannot always cope with some health issues e.g. Ebola. Tend to be much quicker in responding to crisis and being within the action; provide health care for poor or remote regions, working alongside locals to train and understand needs.
What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of NGOs?
+ves: their ability to reach areas of severe need e.g. Turkey earthquake- Red cross there first. Promotion of local involvement, low operation costs, adaptiveness and innovation, independence and sustainability.
-ves: Impacts tend to be smaller-scale, reliant on continued donations.
Role of Médecins Sans Frontier
2021: admitted over 1mn to their hospitals and worked in mobile clinics, refugee camps. Work in both immediate crisis and long term medical programmes for vulnerable groups cut off from care. Role: emergency responders, specialists, advocate and speak out about endangered populations.
Give an example where Médecins Sans Frontier have been successful.
Feb 2023: Ulang County, S.Sudan: seasonal floods leaving communities isolated from healthcare for 5+ months. MSF hospital in Ulang provide basic emergency obstetric and new-born, train traditional birth attendants e.g. delivered 443 babies in Ulang hospital last year.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an NGO founded by the co-founder of Microsoft and his wife in 2000. Bill Gates started the foundation with $1 billion of his own money and he and his wife have since donated more than $36 billion. Focus on increasing health and reducing extreme poverty across the world. Funds food security and healthcare programmes around the world. It has partnered with the Rockefeller Foundation, donating $100 million to enhance agricultural science and small-farm productivity in Africa to support the green revolution. In 2005 it launched the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene program which now focuses on sanitation and education around water hygiene in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Success of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Deaths caused by AIDS, TB and malaria each year have been reduced by nearly 50% since 2002 in countries where the foundation invests.
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