World Health Organization (WHO) is specialized agency of United Nations. WHO was Established in 1948, April 7, three years after formation of United Nations. WHO serves as the directing and coordinating authority for international health matters and Public Health.
World Health Organization is responsible for prevention and control of specific diseases. It works towards the improvement of family health, environmental health, health statistics and bio- medical research. It is responsible for assembling health literature and information. It also cooperates with other organizations to get the equilibrium in improved health status.
Headquarters of WHO are located in Geneva, Switzerland
Organizational Structure of WHO
1. World Health Assembly (Parliament)
- The world heath assembly is the supreme decision-making body for WHO.
- It generally meets in Geneva in May each year and is attended by delegations from all the 194 member states
- Head of the Who is Director General. The current Director general of WHO is Dr. Tedros Adhanom an Ethiopian nationalist. (started his term on 1 July 2017)
- Term of the Director general is 5 year
- For the first time (5 oct 2017), an Indian Doctor has been appointed as deputy DG of WHO. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, she was until now the DG of Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi
2. Executive Board
- Composed of 34 members technically qualified in field of health.
- Executive Board takes the core decisions of WHO
- Members are elected for the term of three years
3. The Secretariat
- The secretariat of WHO is staffed by some 8000 health and other experts and working at headquarters in 6 regional offices
- secretariat contains different departments, having 5 assistant DG who report to Director General
