Source description last updated: 18 February 2022

In brief: The World Health Organization (WHO) is a United Nations agency mandated to advance the global health agenda.

Coverage on ecoi.net:
Articles and reports (for countries of priorities A-E).
Covered monthly on ecoi.net.

Mission/Mandate/Objectives:

“When diplomats met to form the United Nations in 1945, one of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization. WHO’s Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948.“ (WHO Website, History of WHO, undated)

“Working with 194 Member States across six regions and on the ground in 150+ locations, the WHO team works to improve everyone’s ability to enjoy good health and well-being. (WHO Website, About WHO, undated)

“WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. Our goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being. [...]

Through our work, we address:

●       human capital across the life-course

●       noncommunicable diseases prevention

●       mental health promotion

●       climate change in small island developing states

●       antimicrobial resistance

●       elimination and eradication of high-impact communicable diseases.” (WHO Website, What we do, undated)

Funding:

Total revenue in 2018 was around US$ 2,900 million of which close to US$ 2,300 million were voluntary contributions. Assessed contributions for 2018 were slightly higher than US$ 500 million. (Audited Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018, 3 May 2019, p. 15)

 Voluntary contributions “represent revenue recognized from governments, intergovernmental organizations, institutions, other United Nations organizations as well as nongovernment organizations.” (Audited Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2018, 3 May 2019, p. 52)

For further details, see: https://www.who.int/about/accountability/budget (Budget) and https://www.who.int/about/accountability/financial-statements (Financial Statements).

Scope of reporting:

Geographic focus: Most countries worldwide.

Thematic focus: The whole range of health related topics, including: mortality rates; HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases; disease outbreaks and emergencies; nutrition disorders; drug and equipment supply; water and sanitation; medical care, hospitals and access to health services; health systems and health reforms; health of mothers, children and the youth; child malnutrition; immunisation programmes; health determinants and statistics; health supplies and human resources; mental disorders and mental health system; alcohol and tobacco consumption; demographic and socio-economic context, health financing; the consequences of natural disasters; epidemiological data, etc.

Methodology:

WHO reports are prepared and written by WHO’s staff working in regional and country offices in cooperation with a wide range of WHO partners (WHO has official relations with NGOs all over the world and maintains relations also with many other international as well as national institutions and organisations).

Information contained in the reports is gathered first-hand by WHO staff or staff of project partners; or is gathered from the reports of other organisations, institutions and agencies, such as UN agencies, the World Bank, national ministries of health, statistical institutes and research centres, regional or local NGOs, etc.

In the process of preparation of reports, advice, contributions and support are given by a number of professionals, who also review the text.

Situational analysis is “based on a desk review followed by in-depth interviews.” Desk reviews analyse “country documents pertaining to governance mechanisms for NCDs [noncommunicable diseases] and policies and programmes resulting from multisectoral action. A standard list of nine thematic areas” is provided “for country NCD focal points and WHO NCD focal points to collate and share documents.” Literature received is “analysed using a thematic framework and common threads and divergent trends identified.” Interviews are “conducted with country NCD focal points using a standard interview guide [...] Data from the interviews” is analysed “using a conceptual framework” (World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia, Multisectoral coordination mechanisms and responses to noncommunicable diseases in the South-East Asia Region; Where are we in 2018?, 2019, p. 2-3)

Languages of publications:

English; some of the reports are also published in other official languages of the UN (French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese).

Further reading / links:

WHO Constitution, 22 July 1946
http://apps.who.int/gb/bd/PDF/bd47/EN/constitution-en.pdf

WHO regional offices, undated
https://www.who.int/about/who-we-are/regional-offices

Methodological note:

ecoi.net's source descriptions contain background information on an organisation’s mission & objective, funding and reporting methodology, as well as on how we cover the source. The descriptions were prepared after researching publicly accessible information within time constraints. Most information contained in a source description was taken from the source itself. The aim is to provide a brief introduction to the sources covered regularly, offering information on relevant aspects in one place in a systematic manner. 

All links accessed 18 February 2022.