Happy birthday WHO
Looking at some of the more recent milestones.
Background
The WHO was founded on April 7, 1948 and currently has 194 members. It was founded to promote health for everyone.
In 1948, countries of the world came together and founded WHO to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health and well-being.
You might find it interesting to have a look at all the milestones of the past 75 years. I picked out a few more recents ones to have a closer look at, but there is much more information on this page. I’m sure you heard about the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. There are a number of milestones related to polio – check it out.
Health-related SDGs
The first thing I’d like to mention are health-related SDGs. In 2015, all United Nations Member States adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Good health and well-being is SDG 3 - on that page you can also have a look at the targets for each of the indicators of SDG 3 and also see other related SDGs. I was not actively aware of all these health-related SDGs and indicators so maybe you weren’t either. That’s why I’m adding a picture here.
SDG 6 is a big one here, because without water, sanitation and hygiene it becomes really difficult to stay healthy. Others focus on violence and more specifically violence against women and girls. Food is also an important factor as are clean cities. I’m kind of knew to looking into SDGs, but the way I understand it is that you have your SDGs and then you define indicators to measure how well you are doing.
Further developments
In 2019 the UN adopted a Declaration on universal health coverage. It makes me wonder where we stand on that since we recently learned that about 2 billion people still don’t have access to clean water and sanitation. I remain skeptical of universal health coverage is possible under those circumstances. Great initiative though.
There is a video to go with the initiative video and it explains that the declaration is about “what you need to get, to be and to stay healthy”. Safe water would have to be a priority here, I would think. Which brings as back to SDG 6 being linked to all other SDGs.
Later on in 2022 there was an Agreement for cooperation on the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment followed. It says:
“One Health” stands for an integrative and systemic approach to health, grounded on the understanding that human health is closely linked to the healthiness of food, animals and the environment, and the healthy balance of their impact on the ecosystems they share, everywhere in the world. These interconnections and vulnerabilities were once more demonstrated by the CoVid-19 pandemic. […]
Another agreement that highlights that we are in this together. You can not separate food, animals and the environment from health – it was never possible and we now seem to have realized that collaborations like these are necessary to get us out of the mess we got ourselves into. These four aspects can’t be looked at and dealt with as individual issues any longer. I love the diagram the WHO posted to go with their report on “One Health” - it shows all the cogs working together. We are finally seeing a trend towards collaboration on a large scale. There are so many possibilities if we pool our resources.
And finally, check out this video - it’s a story about all of us because we all play a role.
Upcoming newsletters
I plan on writing more about mental health and also women’s health. I have bookmarked what the WHO has done in those areas and will share my thoughts soon-ish.
Notes:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/75-years-of-improving-public-health
https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/world-health-statistics
https://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537
Very nice look back at 75 years of the World Health Organization. Accomplishments and challenges identified. I love the graphics provided. Also agree that the challenge of water 💦 SDG #6 is basic to all levels of health and welcome outcomes of the recent water conference at the UN as they develop quickly as the shortages are projected to be much worse if we cannot or do not follow through. Actually, there is no option. We MUST meet the challenge before 2030.