Many were looking forward to 2020 – the start of a new decade with great optimism and enthusiasm. Little did we know, that it would be a year where the whole world was to go on lockdown. A few months into 2020, the threat of the novel Corona Virus also being called COVID-19 became a reality to the rest of the world. At the forefront of this fight against COVID-19 is the World Health Organization (WHO), the biggest international institution that engages in public health affair all over the globe for betterment of the human race. Thus, in order to understand, appreciate and critique the role of the World Health Organization in this particular time it is of utter importance that we take a step back and explore its background, history and the way it operates as an international institution.
The World Health Organization is a global health agency that is part of the United Nations. It was formed in the same year as the United Nations in 1948 and has its headquarters located in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization employs approximately 7 000 staff across six regional offices and 150 field offices. As of date, it has 194 member states and its source of funding comes from its member states and donations from philanthropic institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
It is without doubt it carries a great responsibility that of ensuring healthy societies in the world’s nations. Some of the traditional functions of this organization include advocating for universal health care and monitor public health risk. Its duties stretch as far as giving recommendations and standardized guidelines for health policies to countries and responding to international health crises or emergencies. Its most remarkable moment since its inception came about in its battle against smallpox in 1958, when the organization launched its global initiative to combat this disease that was killing two million people every year. It was only in 1979 when WHO was able to announce that smallpox has been completely eliminated.
Now, that we have clarified the institution’s operating framework, it is much easier to understand its role during our present circumstances. Given the fact this is a global emergency the role of this period mainly revolves on responding or countering this pandemic that has caused a global disaster worldwide. One of its chief roles during this time is to give accurate and tuneful warnings, and guidelines to its member states of this pending health risk. Therefore, it is safe to say during these trying times WHO given its vast global network and competent personnel has a primary role of communicating to the world messages of awareness in a timely manner. In order to fulfill this role, WHO is making use of its website and social media platforms to distribute updates around the world.
WHO also has a role in reaching out and assisting with humanitarian aid within its capacity to member states such as essential healthcare materials e.g. testing kits. This role arises from the desperate need for assistance that might be needed in some fragile settings within its member states. According to WHO, they have shipped more than two million pieces of personal protective equipment and one million diagnostic test kits to over 120 countries. WHO has launched
multilingual e-learning courses about various aspects of COVID-19 which inclusive standard preparedness and response procedures to this pandemic.
The World Health Organization during in particular time has the crucial role of organizing, assisting, researching and reporting on the development of potential drugs and vaccines. On the 24th of April 2020, the World Health Organization took a huge step in fulfilling this role by announcing a pledge campaign for global collaboration asking researchers, donors and industrialists to agree to work together and commit to equitable distribution of vaccines and medicine.
This organization has a never-ending role of giving health guidelines on all health-related issues to all nations. That being said it is imperative that steps are taken to make sure that the world is not caught by another health crisis by surprise. In that regard, WHO has to make sure that adequate or proportional attention is given to other health concerns and threats thou they may not be as deadly as the novel corona virus but capable of causing an upset in our society. With endeavor in mind it can be seen that WHO does vital year-round work expanding healthcare, improving maternal health systems, rolling out vaccination programs to where there is an outbreak of some sort and propping up weak healthcare systems which is essential to ensure our health crisis do not escalate further.
However, given the importance of its role in time a like this, its limitations should be also understood so as to have a realistic and picture-perfect view of its capacity and ability and downplay any unnecessary hype and pile up of wrongful expectations upon the institution. Firstly, it should be noted that being a knowledge-based institution, its primary function is that of an advisory role not the world doctor perception some might think have just by looking at its name. Secondly, it should be put across that this institution does not have an exclusive or particular jurisdiction meaning that it is not centered on any particular but has an enlarged network to cover meaning at times it seems like its neglecting a particular health issues yet it is will addressing them systematically according to what deserves greater attention and is pressing according to its knowledge. Another drawback is the fact that member states are not obliged to take up advice rather its up to them to accept it or not. Moreover, given the source of the majority of its funding, it can be argued the organization could be a political instrument by those who give up the most contributions. This was brought to light during the recent development whereby its biggest donor the USA withdrew its self from the institute forwarding allegations that WHO is an accomplice to China in this disaster by withholding essential information on this virus that should have been released earlier. This particular development to hamper the organization in fulfilling its mandate as the move by the USA could have been motivated to act this way as a play in its trade war with China. Thus, it leaves the organization in a vulnerable position, where it must push for a certain narrative – that will make other parties happy and others aggravated.
Another major drawback in implementing its role and primary role is that it is dependent on the information it receives from its member states and that it cannot enter into a sovereign territory without the county’s approval. This can be seen as in this case whereby China allowed WHO officials into country to assess the situation only after two months the virus had exploded in the country. Thus, it limits the organization ability to take decisive action when it is discharging its duties at opportune time.
More-so, given that the battle with COVID-19 is still looming large, the jury is still out as it is impossible to give an accurate assessment on how successful it has been in playing its role to tackling it. Should it be true, that WHO did in-fact withheld information about the virus from the public, that means it acted against its mandate and against the possibility of acting on it sooner. That said, the responsibility to arrest COVID-19 rests not only on WHO, but on all stakeholders to ensure we all play our part to defeat the biggest pandemic we have ever faced since the Spanish flue.
Author: David Mlambo, Legal Intern at Legal Desire (June 2020)
Young dynamic law student from Zimbabwe. I am studying at Parul University., has a keen interest in various branches of law namely constitutional law and corporate.
