Week 6: Understanding WHO?

Question 1

What was the international health era of WHO?

Answer 1

When WHO centred on relations between states who sometimes co-operated to achieve health goals

Question 2

What is the global health era of WHO?

Answer 2

• Focusing on rising power of private and ‘hybrid’ actors (power more distributed)
• Managing international collective action difficult – need for states to ‘network’ differently

Question 3

List a few reasons as to why change is happening.

Answer 3

• Disease
• Climate change
• Globalisation
• Technological change

Question 4

What is global governance?

Answer 4

The manner in which global society organises itself.

Question 5

List the 4 different types of power involved with global governance.

Answer 5

• Resource-based power
• Decision-making power
• Legal/regulatory power
• Discursive power

Question 6

Why do governments set up intergovernmental organisations (like WHO)?

Answer 6

• If the intergovernmental organisation can address a common threat to nations.
• As a means for rich nations (who tend to control the intergovernmental organisations) to dominate poorer countries
• To exercise soft power: ‘the ability to get desired outcomes because others want what you want’
• To facilitate international co-operation – every state is part of a ‘society of states’ and behaves accordingly, as a way of expressing common values.
• To ensure efficient coordination of activities

Question 7

When was WHO established?

Answer 7

1948

Question 8

What is WHO?

Answer 8

UN’s specialised agency for health that sets normative guidelines.

Question 9

What is the role of WHO?

Answer 9

• To research, collect and disseminate evidence for policy and practice
• To lead initiatives in the field of health, including providing technical assistance and building capacity.

Question 10

What is the governance of WHO?

Answer 10

Governed by World Health Assembly (WHA) of all 196 member states and rotating Executive Board (EB) of 34 member states.

Question 11

How does WHO’s budgeting work?

Answer 11

WHO’s budget is set on a two-yearly (or ‘biennial’ basis). Currently budget for the entire organisation is approximately $6.7 bn dollars for the biennium 2022-23.

Question 12

What are the names of the two components of the budget?

Answer 12

• ‘Regular budget’ or ‘assessed’ contributions
• ‘Extrabudgetary’ or ‘voluntary’ contributions

Question 13

What is the ‘regular budget’ or ‘assessed’ contributions?

Answer 13

• Comes from all member nations, according to a formula determined by their wealth and population size
• Member states agreed to increase assessed contributions gradually so that by 2030-31 they represent 50% of the organisation’s programme budget; currently assessed contributions are less than 20% of total budget.

Question 14

What is the ‘extrabudgetary or ‘voluntary’ contributions?

Answer 14

• Comes largely from rich nations and earmarked to special priorities

Question 15

When was Health Office of the League of Nations created?

Answer 15

1920

Question 16

What was the purpose of the Health Office of the League of Nations?

Answer 16

• Standardisation (e.g. medical research; statistics)
• International surveillance and disease control
• International conferences on disease
• Medical education and dissemination of core professional values