International Organisation and write a research paper on the history, role, functions (policy-fields), effectiveness (impact/successful policy promotion or unsuccessful actions) and future reform possibilities. The assignment should also examine to what extent your organisation cooperates or competes with other IOs in the specific policy-fields at hand. Citation and Bibliography-Here the student have to acknowledge the sources that they have referred to in APA style.
The WHO is an international organisation that emphasises on building a better and healthier future for everyone. They work with 194 Member States, across six regions, and from more than 150 offices, WHO staff are united in a shared commitment to achieve better health for everyone, everywhere. Together they strive to combat diseases – communicable diseases like influenza and HIV, and noncommunicable diseases like cancer and heart disease. They help mothers and children survive and thrive so they can look forward to a healthy old age & also ensure the safety of the air people breathe, the food they eat, the water they drink – and the medicines and vaccines they need.
History
How all of this came into being was during 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.In part as a result of the successes of the Conferences, the Pan-American Sanitary Bureau, and the Office International d'Hygiène Publique were soon founded in 1902 and 1907, respectively.
When the League of Nations was formed in 1920, they established the Health Organisation of the League of Nations. After World War II, the United Nations absorbed all the other health organisations, to form the WHO.
What are the main functions of the World Health Organisation? How effectively has it performed these functions when dealing with maternal health?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is the body of the United Nations (UN) responsible for directing and coordinating health. As such WHO has come to play a vital role as an actor in the field of international public health and international public health policy. Since its inception in 1947 WHO has been at the forefront of many breakthroughs in the field including, most notably, what has come to be described as one of the greatest humanitarian achievements of the 20th century, the elimination of Smallpox in 1979. However WHO’s inability to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa has cast doubt on its effectiveness. Though much of the media attention given to WHO concentrates on its role in controlling and ultimately eliminating infectious disease, WHO’s mandate is far broader. The details of WHO’s mandate will be examined in detail throughout this paper but put simply this mandate is to ensure the attainment of the highest possible level of all forms of health by all human beings. Due to globalisation and the related transport revolution of the 20th century it is now possible for infectious diseases to spread around the globe in a matter of days. The threat of infectious disease brings with it a number of traditional, hard security issues that put bluntly other health issues do not. However in light of the development of the human security paradigm from the late 1990s onwards it is now becoming increasingly apparent that IR scholars will need to expand their examination of the ways in which WHO functions beyond the realm of infectious disease.
WHO and National Policy
WHO’s major contribution to the health policy of individual nations is normative in nature. One of WHO’s major functions, as discussed above, in the area of maternal health at an international level is to publish recommendations on how to care for women before during and after pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period and how to prevent, manage and treat many of the complications that can arise during this period.
WHO produces a range of literature designed to fulfil this normative function. Some of it is technical in nature, designed largely as a teaching aid to those working in the field. An example of this type of literature is Care in Normal Birth: a practical guide which is a detailed and systematic guide to care providing information on such matters as diagnosing when labour has started, how to monitor the progress of labour, how to prevent prolonged labour etc. Other literature is directed at policymakers. An example of this form of literature is Standards for Maternal and Neonatal Care. This document discusses standards for maternal and newborn care. Each standard is presented in a uniform manner and details the evidence and rationale used in developing the standard
. WHO states that the purpose of this document is to help policymakers develop and implement policy at national, sub-national and facility levels for providing effective maternal and newborn health services and improve to the uptake of these services by communities. Other documents are a combination of technical and policy considerations.
WHO’s regional bodies also play a normative function in relation to national health policy. An example of this can be found in EURO’s Assessment Tool for the Quality of Hospital Care for Mothers and Newborn Babies which is an exhaustive survey assessing everything from drug availability to foetal monitoring.
A success story – A new Action Plan for nutrition in Bangladesh
The People’s Republic of Bangladesh has endorsed the Second National Plan of Action for Nutrition (NPAN 2), 2016-2025 in March 2017. It’s goal is to improve the nutritional status of all citizens and reduce all forms of malnutrition, with a focus on children, adolescent girls, pregnant women and lactating mothers. Reflecting the work of more than 17 ministries, numerous stakeholders and partners, NPAN 2 is the first costed nutrition plan in Bangladesh. The plan was the result of a robust national collaborative process and resulted in the inclusion of Nutrition in the individual ministries and other stakeholders’ priorities. NPAN 2 is an important step towards reflecting Bangladesh’s commitment to Sustainable Development Goals, Scaling up Nutrition, Second International Conference on Nutrition and World Health Assembly.
Yemen crisis – The impact of undernutrition in Yemen
23 November 2018 — Yasmeen from Yemen is only 8-months old. She lies in Al-Thawra hospital in Hodeidah. Like many of the severely malnourished children in this hospital she doesn’t cry. Her little body is lethargic and feeble; it lacks the energy to cry.
In this WHO-supported clinic, severely malnourished Yemenis children find help. The most critical cases are those who are not only malnourished but also have medical complications, like respiratory tract infections, severe anaemia, dehydration, and no appetite.
Future reforms – Activity areas to be addressed during 2019-2023
Research and development for medicines and vaccines that meets public health needs
Fair pricing and financing policies
Application and management of intellectual property to contribute to innovation and promote public health
Procurement and supply chain management
Appropriate prescribing, dispensing and use
Regulatory systems that ensure quality, safety and efficacy of medicines and vaccines
Preparedness for emergencies
Good governance
Health workforce capacity for access to medicines and vaccines