WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY - INTERNATIONAL
News: World
health meet: PM for equity in health care
What's in the news?
● Prime
Minister Narendra Modi virtually addressed the 76th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
Key takeaways:
● While
congratulating the organization for “serving the world for 75 years”, Modi said
the pandemic showed there was a need for greater collaboration and health
equity.
India's commitment during pandemic:
● He
mentioned that India showed its commitment towards international cooperation
during the pandemic by shipping 300
million vaccine doses to over 100 countries, many from the Global South.
● He
said, “I am sure that supporting equal access to resources will be a top
priority for the WHO in the coming years.”
● The
PM’s call for equity in healthcare comes in the backdrop of India’s G20
presidency where one of the priority areas is creating a global network for
manufacturing medical countermeasures – diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines – so
that everyone has access to it.
World Health Assembly:
● The
World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health
Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194
member states.
● It
is attended by delegations from all WHO Member States.
● It
is the world's highest health policy
setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states.
Director-General:
● It
is appointed by the Health Assembly
on the nomination of the Executive Board.
● Elected
by a vote of Member State for 5-year
term.
Go back to basics:
World Health Organization (WHO):
● WHO
is an organization of 194 Member States.
● In
1948, WHO was hosted by the Swiss Federation.
Headquarters:
● Global
office is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
Regional offices:
● WHO
Member States are grouped into 6
regions. Each region has a regional office.
○ WHO
Africa
○ WHO
Americas
○ WHO
Eastern Mediterranean
○ WHO
Europe
○ WHO
South-East Asia
○ WHO
Western Pacific
WHO’s Other offices:
1. WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence,
Berlin, Germany:
● To
address future pandemic and epidemic risks with better access to data, better
analytical capacities, and better tools and insights for decision-making.
2. WHO Centre for Health Development, Kobe, Japan:
● Global
research centers foster innovative solutions and translate them into policies
and actions to achieve sustainable universal health coverage.
3. WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine, Jamnagar,
India:
● Aims
to harness the potential of traditional medicine from across the world through
modern science and technology.