WHO IS WHO?

We take a closer look at the World Health Organization and its role in combatting the coronavirus pandemic

- DENNIS CAVERNELIS

IT’S been at the heart of driving information related to one of the deadliest diseases to hit the world in recent memory. Yet although its name has popped up in one article after the other, few people gave a second thought to what the World Health Organization (WHO) really is.

Then came US president Donald Trump’s declaration that the US is withdrawing $400 million (R7,5bn) of funding for the global health body and everyone started to wonder about the WHO.

The US has the highest rate of deaths related to Covid-19 – at the time of going to print it was about 50 000. Trump has been widely criticised for how he has dealt with the crisis – but he’s pointing fingers at the global health body.

He’s accused staff of “mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic” and said the US would withhold funding until the WHO’s “mismanagement, cover-ups, and failures can be investigated”.

The US is the largest source of funding for the organisation and withdrawing the money could have a devastating effect on their ability to help combat the coronavirus.

“Not seeing the value of the World Health Organization highlights how unprepared the United States was for a pandemic,” says Steven Hoffman, director of the Global Strategy Lab and a professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University in Canada.

We take a closer look at the WHO.

WHERE IT STARTED

It was founded in April 1948 and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. It came about when the United Nations, which was established three years earlier, decided it needed a global health body.

South Africa was one of the 51 founding nations of both organisations.