The World Health Organization: Some Views from Inside

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by the World Health Assembly (WHA), its supreme decision-making body, where all member states are represented. The WHA is held once a year when health ministers or officials from the capitals meet, discuss, and decide strategic issues. More routine representation of member states at WHO is carried out by their missions in Geneva. Some countries, which tend to be large and rich, have designated health attachés in their Geneva missions while many others have one person representing the whole range of United Nations (UN) specialized agencies in Geneva, including WHO, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and other intergovernmental organizations. There is not only an issue of different attention, time and expertise of these state representatives in dealing withWHOon a daily basis.More important, health attachés and diplomats can have significantly different views from one another on what WHO should or should not do, and on how to pursue the global health issuesindeed, these opinions may sometimes differ from their colleagues in capitals or inministries of health. Diplomats serving a series of UN agencies can also bring to WHO the issues in which they have interests from other UN agencies, or even the grudges against other member states from battles that have occurred elsewhere in other UN agencies.