Is the WHO part of the United Nations?

Yes. The WHO is a specialized agency of the UN, linked to the system through an agreement with ECOSOC, but it has its own constitution, membership, and budget.

Who can vote at the World Health Assembly?

Each WHO member state has one vote at the WHA. Associate members and observers may participate in debates but do not vote on substantive matters.

How is the WHO funded?

Through assessed contributions set by the WHA based on a state's UN scale of assessment, and voluntary contributions from states, organizations, and private donors, which now make up the larger share of the budget.

World Health Organization Definition

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations created to direct and coordinate international health work. Its constitution was adopted at the 1946 International Health Conference in New York and entered into force on 7 April 1948, a date now commemorated annually as World Health Day. The WHO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and operates through six regional offices (AFRO, AMRO/PAHO, EMRO, EURO, SEARO, and WPRO) and country offices in most member states.

Governance rests with three principal bodies:

The World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making organ, in which all member states are represented and which meets annually in May to set policy, approve the budget, and adopt resolutions.
The Executive Board, composed of 34 technically qualified members elected for three-year terms, which gives effect to WHA decisions.
The Secretariat, led by the Director-General. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia became Director-General in 2017 and was re-elected in 2022.

WHO's mandate spans communicable and noncommunicable disease control, health systems strengthening, emergency response, and norm-setting. Among its binding and normative instruments are the International Health Regulations (IHR), 2005, which govern state obligations to detect and report public health events of international concern, and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), 2003, the first treaty negotiated under WHO auspices.

The agency declared smallpox eradicated in 1980 and has led global responses to HIV/AIDS, polio, Ebola, and COVID-19. On 30 January 2020 it declared COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), and on 11 March 2020 characterized it as a pandemic. In May 2024 the WHA adopted amendments to the IHR, while negotiations on a separate Pandemic Agreement continued into 2024–2025. WHO is financed by assessed contributions from member states and a larger share of voluntary contributions from states and philanthropic donors.

Governance rests with three principal bodies:

The World Health Assembly (WHA), the supreme decision-making organ, in which all member states are represented and which meets annually in May to set policy, approve the budget, and adopt resolutions.
The Executive Board, composed of 34 technically qualified members elected for three-year terms, which gives effect to WHA decisions.
The Secretariat, led by the Director-General. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia became Director-General in 2017 and was re-elected in 2022.

Frequently asked questions

Go deeper than the definition

Frequently asked questions

Go deeper than the definition