World Health Organization: Their Functions And Office Address In Nigeria

The World Health Organization (WHO) was established on 7 April 1948 with its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland. Building a better future for people everywhere is WHO’s Major objective. Health lays the foundation for vibrant and productive communities, stronger economies, safer nations and a better world.

Their work touches lives around the world every day – often in invisible ways. As the lead health authority within the United Nations (UN) system, we help ensure the safety of the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and the medicines and vaccines that treat and protect us. The Organization aims to provide every child, woman and man with the best chance to lead a healthier, longer life.

WHO has been at the centre of or behind dramatic improvements in public health since it was established in 1948, gathering the world’s top health experts, defining solutions, delivering guidelines and mobilizing governments, health workers and partners to positively impact people’s health. The Organization works in close collaboration with other UN agencies, donors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), WHO collaborating centres and the private sector. It contributes to promoting the general health of people across the world. Over 7,000 public health experts from all over the globe work for WHO, in most countries worldwide.

This brief information provides useful insight into WHO’s work in collaboration with other stakeholders to improve people’s health.

Functions And Activities Of World Health Organisation

Function	Benchmarks (desired situation)	Some typical WHO Activities (examples)
Ensuring the best possible information, analysis and understanding	• Health needs, system delivery capacity and operational constraints known; information consolidated & displayed in a manner that facilitates consensus and decisions	Promoting collaboration among all partners in assessments & situation monitoring.
	• Priority health threats and system’s critical capacities monitored regularly with possibility of early warning	Participating in assessments; initiating & organizing assessments when necessary.
		Ensuring informed analysis of data and evidence-based conclusions.
		Acting to ensure that data are verified, where necessary, and that gaps in information are filled.
		Ensuring regular, adequate monitoring of the health situation and risks for health and health services.
		Ensuring evaluations of health-sector response and lessons-learning exercises.
Facilitating coordination	• Organized space and time for all health partners to discuss issues, decide actions to take and assign responsibilities; mechanisms for follow up, evaluation	Supporting existing mechanisms for coordinating international health assistance; providing effective leadership to the health cluster/sector coordination group, when designated as lead, including assuring information on who is doing what, where.
	• Work in all other sectors geared to the survival, health and sustainable livelihoods of the population	Ensuring agreement on overall objectives, priorities and a health sector response plan.
		Ensuring the preparation and dissemination of regular health bulletins.
		Contributing effectively to the work of other public-health-related clusters/sector-groups.
		Working through formal mechanisms and informally to promote effective information exchange and, to the extent possible, joint strategies and action plans among all health actors.
Acting to fill gaps in health service provision	• Life-threatening conditions prevented or promptly addressed, with CFR maintained within international standards	Identifying and prioritizing gaps in services or geographic coverage.
	• Appropriate means applied to improve equitable access to health care in a sustainable way and according to international standards	Working with MoH, other agencies and donors to try to ensure that priority gaps are filled.
		Preparing and mobilizing resources for projects to fill priority gaps for which WHO has particular competence or that are unlikely to be filled by other actors.
Helping to (re-) build systems & capacity	• National health partners fully integrated in, and supportive of, the delivery of humanitarian assistance	Ensuring thorough analysis of the impact on national health systems and capacities (MoH and non-government).
	• International health partners effectively complementing national efforts	Identifying weaknesses in and opportunities to reinforce existing systems and capacities.
		Working with MoH and other health actors to ensure that humanitarian interventions contribute to (re-) building sustainable national systems and capacities, wherever possible.
		Preparing and mobilizing resources for projects to (re-) build sustainable national systems and capacities.