Current Board Members
The World Health Organization (WHO)
The
World Health Organization was founded in 1948. A specialized agency
of the United Nations with 191 Member States, WHO promotes technical
cooperation for health among nations, carries out programmes to
control and eradicate disease, and strives to improve the quality
of human life. Its objective is the attainment by all peoples of
the highest possible levels of health.
WHO has four main functions:
- To give worldwide guidance in the field of
health
- To set global standards for health
- To cooperate with governments in strengthening
national health programmes
- To develop and transfer appropriate health
technology, information and standards
WHOs major achievements include the eradication
of smallpox, a disease that scarred and killed millions before being
officially declared eradicated in 1980. Eradication resulted in
a huge reduction of human suffering and great financial savings.
Other diseases, such as polio and guinea-worm, are now on the threshold
of eradication and leprosy is also being overcome. But, as well
as fighting infectious disease, WHO is the leading international
public health agency in efforts to improve access to and equality
of health care, fight a growing worldwide burden of non-communicable
diseases, deliver essential drugs and support the development of
new drugs, promote healthy lifestyles and environments, and develop
quantitative methods to analyse health policy options. Of particular
concern to WHO is the link between poverty and health and WHO is
working with the international community to ensure that health is
made a priority of international development efforts.
WHO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland
with six Regional Offices covering the globe and over 100 country
offices. Its supreme decision-making body is the World Health Assembly,
which meets annually.
For more information about WHO, see http://www.who.int.
WHOs role in GAVI
WHO is a partner in the Global Alliance for
Vaccines and Immunization and WHOs Director-General, Dr Gro
Harlem Brundtland, is currently Chair of the GAVI Board. The GAVI
Task Force on Country Coordination, which is responsible for developing
and identifying the best mechanisms for bringing together stakeholders
activities at national level, is coordinated by WHO.
WHOs Department of Vaccines and Biologicals
is charged with ensuring that all people at risk should be protected
against vaccine-preventable diseases (http://www.who.int/vaccines).
On the basis of targets established by the World Health Assembly,
three major objectives have been defined for the Department. The
three objectives are: Innovation, Immunization Systems, and Accelerated
Disease Control. Each of these broad objectives is anchored with
one time-limited priority project with specific measurable goals.
For Innovation, the priority project is the accelerated introduction
of new vaccines. For Immunization Systems, the priority project
is to increase immunization safety. And for Accelerated Disease
Control, the priority is polio eradication.
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