World Health Organisation isn't perfect, but it's the best we've got



This was published 1 year ago


World Health Organisation isn't perfect, but it's the best we've got

By Charlotte O'Leary

Intergovernmental organisations like the World Health Organisation are not perfect. I have worked there, as a small cog in the hallowed halls of Geneva. I have gathered with fellow civil society representatives and challenged the WHO to be more accountable, to be more responsive to health challenges, to be more of everything to everyone.

Indeed, the WHO and its parent organisation, the United Nations, have shortcomings and face challenges. But what is the alternative? We cannot go back from the era of international collaboration that defined the 20th century. Our world is far too interconnected – this pandemic has made that painfully obvious.

US President Donald Trump has moved to curtail funding to the WHO.

US President Donald Trump has moved to curtail funding to the WHO.Credit:AP

I fear for a world where governments have no faith in multilateral organisations. US President Donald Trump has slammed the WHO and said he would take moves to withdraw his country's considerable funding. Disappointingly, some Australian MPs have also attacked the organisation.

During a pandemic is not the time to reconsider the global structures that have been so carefully built up. Everyone is scared, and governments may well look for scapegoats to detract from their own shortcomings. The fact is, very few countries in the world were fully prepared for a health security threat like this, and everyone has been pushed to their limits.

Countries like ours must recognise their privilege in these trying times. Australians benefit from stable governance and a large formal labour market that can support the peaks and troughs of our universal healthcare system. We have disease surveillance systems, epidemiologists, reliable media platforms and other resources for pandemic preparedness. But there are many countries in the world that do not have that, and look towards organisations such as the WHO for support.

It is our duty as well-resourced countries to share our information, share our financial resources, and help the whole world get through this. It is clear that this won't be over until every last country gets over the line.


Our leaders call for "major reform" of the UN and the WHO, perhaps turning a blind eye to the WHO’s recent transformation agenda. This wide-ranging reform has served to modernise the WHO’s procedures and to support countries in achieving the "triple billion target": a billion more people benefiting from universal health coverage; a billion more people better protected from health emergencies; and a billion more people enjoying better health and well-being.

"Arguably, the greatest burden that WHO bears is its name," wrote Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar in Governing Global Health. This poignant phrase rings true of an organisation with the broadest mandate: to improve global health. So while governments like ours wonder about the use of these organisations, they must ask themselves: what role have we played in making a safer, healthier and more equitable world? What have we done to prevent air pollution blackening the lungs of children in major metropolises? What have we done to stop catastrophic out-of-pocket healthcare expenses pushing people into poverty? What have we done to end female genital mutilation?

Pandemic disease, and in fact infectious disease on the whole, is only one part of the WHO’s mandate to improve health for all. Organisations such as the WHO are needed more than ever, and to stop funding the WHO in the midst of this crisis would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Charlotte O'Leary is a junior doctor at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and an advocate for youth engagement in global health. As liaison officer to the WHO for the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations, she was the official representative of 1.3 million students from more than 120 countries.

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