WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 7 April 1948, a date now commemorated as World Health Day. Its constitution, adopted at the International Health Conference in New York in 1946, defines health as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

WHO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and operates through six regional offices (AFRO, AMRO/PAHO, EMRO, EURO, SEARO, WPRO) and country offices in most member states. Its governing body is the World Health Assembly (WHA), which meets annually in May and is composed of delegations from all member states. The WHA elects the Director-General; Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, formerly Ethiopia's foreign minister, was elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2022. Between Assemblies, an Executive Board of 34 technically qualified members guides operations.

Core functions include setting global health norms and standards, providing technical assistance, monitoring disease trends, and coordinating responses to outbreaks. WHO administers the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005), a legally binding instrument under which the Director-General can declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) — invoked for H1N1 (2009), polio (2014), Ebola (2014, 2019), Zika (2016), COVID-19 (2020), and mpox (2022, 2024). WHO also maintains the Model List of Essential Medicines and the International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Funding combines assessed contributions from member states with voluntary contributions, the latter often earmarked, which critics argue constrains organizational independence. Major recent initiatives include negotiations on a Pandemic Agreement, adopted by the WHA in May 2025 following the COVID-19 experience, and the COVAX co-led vaccine access mechanism. WHO works closely with UNICEF, FAO, UNAIDS, and the World Bank on cross-cutting health and development issues.