International Health Organizations as Avenues for Health Progress - Term Paper Example

?Running head: International Health Organizations International Health Organizations as Avenues for Health Progress (How International Health Organizations, such as WHO, PAHO, UNICEF, UNAP, and Bilateral Organizations such as USAID, Peace Corps Work Together) Introduction “Public Health” is the science of protecting and improving the health of communities through education, development of health lifestyles, health care dissemination and disease and injury prevention (Association of Schools of Public Health, 2010). It is concerned with protecting the health of the greater population. Moreover, the importance of conceptualizing public health creates national relevance for the development of the growing communities and in order to lessen the increasing rate of health deterioration. Hence, public health, as a preventive measure gives medical assistance to communities. However, the inevitable changes in the environment and economic and social norms of the people led public health futile. The battle of providing health revenues and resources has become elusive due to different factors of over population, environmental calamities, political and cultural differences and pollution. Nevertheless, in spite of the struggling battle on health and related issues, international health organizations have been top in the line of organizing and managing health issues providing long-term health care especially to those suffering from illnesses and victims of war, famine and natural disasters (International Medical Volunteers Association [IMVA], n.d.). In addition, international health organization is divided into three groups; one is the multinational health organization which centers on information dissemination of health care and continuously offering wide-range of basic health services and production in more than one country. Being multilateral, funding of this kind of health organization comes from multiple governments, and is divided to many different countries. International Health Organizations and How They Collaborate The premiere multinational health organization is the World Health Organization (WHO), which has been the leading coordinator on global health matters within the United Nation System. Every member-country of the United Nations has a share in addressing health problems, directing health agenda, regulations and policies for assessing every country’s health patterns. The role of WHO in public health is to become a coordinating authority on matters relevant to health and engage in partnership in directing actions related thereto. WHO seek to establish information and research pool for health dissemination and create regulations and standards for monitoring health projects and facilities. The organization, likewise, aims to promote evidence-based policy in settling health issues and further provide technical support and building sustainable health institutions in improving health trends around the globe (WHO, 2011). The eradication of smallpox as early as 1967 and 1979 has been one of the successful achievements of WHO. The suppression of smallpox is claimed to be the only time when a dreadful infectious disease has been eradicated. On the other hand, in 2005, the decision-making body of WHO, the World Health Assembly, initiated to revise the International Health Regulations. Furthermore, a few of other projects and programs of WHO over the years are the control of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the adoption of the global strategy of diet, physical activity and health and the institution of the tobacco control after nearly four years of negotiations (WHO, 2007). WHO plays a great role in resolving health crises of many people of different cultures from numerous countries. This is one of the reasons why the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, which facilitates disaster reduction, relies on WHO on guidelines in handling participants in health training courses, according to Janette Lauza-Ugsang, the Project Manager of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center of Thailand (WHO, 2011). Consequently, one of the health crises prevalent today is the insufficiency of funds for health care which results to the shortage of health workers. Naturally, the absence of health workers would deprive people from far flung places to receive adequate health services and medicine. It is in this light that WHO ensures that everyone are able to enjoy basic health care by providing avenues for recruitment and retention of health workers (WHO, 2011, 2007). Aside from WHO, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public agency working to improve the living and health standards of the countries of America. As a specialized organization for health of the Inter- America System, PAHO acts as a Regional Office for the Americas of WHO (UNF/PAHO Partnership, 2007). As the organization predates WHO, some of their projects are carried out by WHO as well. One of the recent activities of PAHO in collaboration with WHO is the United Nations Non-Communicable Diseases Summit (UN NCDs Summit) held last September, which is an edge for society to gain awareness of the importance of NCDs and how to effectively address the issue (Periago, 2011). The Wellness Week is also an activity of PAHO during the UN High Level Meeting on NCDs held in New York in September, which sought to develop a social movement on healthy living. The goal of Wellness Week is to focus on the significance of environment and socioeconomic conditions in modifying the risk factors for NCDs and prevention (Periago, 2011). PAHO is assured that this project is useful in carrying out their purpose by working together with public –private partners like the Forum for Action on Chronic Diseases and media campaigns to promote their advocacy. Other partnership entered by PAHO is the joint activity in the Amazon sub region wherein the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded them recognition in October 2001. The Amazon Network for Surveillance of Anti-malarial Drug Resistance (RAVREDA) is a network organized by Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Valenzuela, together with PAHO in addressing the anti-malarial drug resistance in Amazon. PAHO believes that broadening their scope by entering into partnerships is a strategic effort in achieving their goals (UNF/PAHO Partnership, 2007). On the other hand, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), another multinational health organization, limits its recourse on emphasizing the children’s rights and promotes their proper development. The importance of delivering the needs of children is essential in order for human progress to be realized. UNICEF was founded with the primary goal of working with other health organizations with the same calling of overcoming the obstacles of adequate living such as poverty, violence, disease and discrimination that hinder children of their full development (UNICEF, 2011). True, those of the world’s weak and defenceless children is the primary focus of UNICEF, making the organization one of the subsidiary agencies of the UN Economic and Social Council, which is the principal organ that manages the economic and social works of the 14 UN agencies, functional commission and five regional commissions (United Nations Economic and Social Council, 2011). UNICEF’s objective is to provide a place for children for voicing out their rights to education, or against diseases by giving them basic health services. The organization prevents the spread of HIV/AIDS to children and women by creating protective environments for them. Widening prevention mechanisms on exploitation and forced labor established by UNICEF on children, helps them remain unharmed due to abuses and violence. One of the responsibilities of UNICEF is to monitor the children and women through data collection with the Multiply Indicator Surveys (MICS). This process has enabled many countries to produce sound indicators for health, education, child protection and HIV/AIDS. Also, the findings of the MICS have been used for establishing policy determining mechanisms for delivering UNICEF’s advocacies (UNICEF, 2011). During emergencies, UNICEF has been in frontlines in aiding humanitarian support for children living in hostile places. This has given UNICEF a tool for providing life assistance to children who suffered from calamities, disasters, wars and other circumstances which put their rights at stake. However, UNICEF does not stop from there, nonetheless, gender equality that is rooted from discrimination and social norms, is likewise highlighted in some of their projects (UNICEF, 2011). The organization’s milestone in achieving their goals is not only centered on establishing projects but nevertheless, evaluation and learning is important to keep them abreast of the flaws of their projects. By analyzing and identifying loop holes, UNICEF is able to innovate and transform their projects not only to achieve their objectives but to avoid conflicts in the changes of the environment. This is necessary in order for them to effectively deliver their movement, advocacy and learning (UNICEF, 2011). Conversely, United Nurse and Allied Professionals (UNAP) is a regional Health Care union representing approximately 5,500 nurses, technologists, therapists, support staff and other health care workers employed in Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut (UNAP, 2011). They focus on creating a health care system that offers affordable and quality-wise services and production to patients. In contrast with the other multinational health organizations, UNAP is a professional (labor) union which is specifically committed in improving the working and economic conditions of all of its members (UNAP, 2011). One of the recent works of UNAP, the four-year RI Hospital Contract campaign which expired this year but later ratified, is focused on providing fair pay raises, protecting the members of UNAP of their health and retirement benefits and job security. Likewise, they prioritize in giving safe and quality health care to their patients and members and improve on their employee morale and staffing patters. This campaign also provides a care education trust, non-profit, labor-member partnership that can provide continuing education and job training programs for health care workers (UNAP, 2011). The RI Hospital envisions developing high quality education and training system in patient care through a labor-management partnership. Like PAHO, health organizations like these cannot attain their fullest development alone. Hence, partnerships with other health sectors are not only essential, nonetheless, a compulsory action in order to make known to others their services and programs and better support their patients. Meanwhile, bilateral organizations, another group of the international health organization, comprise of governmental agencies in a single country which render health support to the same. Today, the biggest bilateral organization is the United State Agency for International Development (USAID, 2010). USAID is the principal US agency which renders assistance to countries suffering from disaster, poverty and democratic reforms. It is an agency which receives overall foreign policy guidance from the Secretary of State. Their goal is to provide long term economic growth by catering to economic, agricultural and trade services, global health and conflict determination and assistance (USAID, 2010). Like Japan and France and other industrialized countries, they have similar governmental agencies like USAID. Clearly, history, political and cultural attributes are some of the indicators that determine which countries receive donations from bilateral agencies and how much they should receive. USAID’s missions are scattered in different sectors like agriculture, democracy and governance, the environment, education and health, global partnership and aiding humanitarian assistance in more than 100 countries (USAID, 2010). Aside from multinational and bilateral health organizations, the third group of international health organization is nongovernmental health organizations (NGO), which acquire 20 percent of all external health aid in developing countries (IMVA, n.d.). The organizations comprise of small population unlike organizations from multilateral and bilateral sectors. Most of the NGOs are affiliated with religious communities and volunteers around the world like Peace Corps that provides for social and economic developments. Other NGOs are the Center for Development Studies (CDS), based in New Delhi established in 1986, which is a research stream principally for the Government of India and other organizations that are research based on social issues (Center for Development Studies, 2010) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Singapore, a health care NGO that provides for basic infrastructure and systems of healthy living to Singaporeans (Ministry of Health, 2011). In contrast, the International Red Cross is the most popular humanitarian NGO which fosters the seven movements of humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality. Red Cross has its mission of providing relief operations to different communities. Catholic Communities likewise play their role in public health. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was founded giving food relief to people who suffered from calamities and wars. This organization closely works with Caritas which is the international Organization of Catholic Charities (International Medical Volunteers Association, n.d). Conclusions All health organizations mentioned, whether multinational, bilateral or nongovernmental, have the common goal of providing health care to everyone. Health organizations collectively coincide with each other to render basic public health from industrialized cities to farfetched places of the world. However, despite the many projects and programs initiated by these health organizations, some of them are left immaterialized. There are many factors that hinder health organizations from achieving their goals. Social inequality that resulted to health inequality is one. Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH) suggests that, this health gap may be eradicated by ensuring health equality to a child from the start, healthier environment, fair and decent employment. These recommendations by CSDH have been known as social determinants of health equity (Marmot, 2011). Another factor why health care are not fully manifested is the inequity of power, money and resources---social injustice, that is. Communication and intervention with communities due to cultural barrier may deprive health organizations from addressing the needs of the people. For this reason, families and communities must be strengthened, as they play an important role in support and protection. In the report of the Regional Community IMCI Partnership (2007), social systems must collaborate with families and communities to maximize the impact of health development (UNF/PAHO Partnership, 2007). Other than social inequities and cultural barriers, the scarcity of resources is a primordial reason that obstructs health organizations from their health functions. Moreso, as the number of individuals in each country increases, the demand and supply of consumerism products increases, but the time and source for production of these necessities does not increase. Hence, it is necessary for people to become aware and be vigilant in maintaining a sustainable development without frustrating the resources of the following generations. Furthermore, pollution has become a major environmental and health challenge from time immemorial. According to an article entitled, Indoor Air Pollution in Developing Countries by Bruce (2010), air pollution has resulted to a great number of respiratory diseases, which is harmful especially to industrialized communities. As they become exposed to this pollution, they run the risk of getting sick and ill and probably die at young ages than others. Lastly, an impending problem of health organizations today is the decreasing number of health workers. According to a World Health Report (Homes, 2006), there is an estimated shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses and support workers worldwide. The shortage is most severe in poorest countries were health workers are most needed. And this affects the health functions of different health organizations because, although they may be a lot of projects and programs for health care, they remain as ambitious proposals due to the absence of competent and efficient health workers. Further, the absence of competent workers may be paralleled with low end medical facilities. The absence of high technical support especially in rural areas where health care is needed render these projects and health programs impossible to do. References Association of Schools of Public Health. (2010). What is public health. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.whatispublichealth.org/ Bruce, N. (2010). Indoor air pollution in developing countries: A major environmental and public health challenge. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 78 (9). http://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78(9)1078.pdf Center for Development Studies. (2010). Our activities. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://cds-ngo.com/Index.aspx Homes, J. (2006). Working together with health. The World Health Report (Chapter 7). Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.who.int/whr/2006/en/ International Medical Volunteers Association (n.d). The Major International Health Organizations. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.imva.org/index.html Marmot, M. (2011). Global action on social determinants of health. Bull World Health Organ, 89, 702. doi. 10.2471/BLT.11094862 http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/10/11-094862.pdf Ministry of Health. (2011). About us. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.moh.gov.sg Pan America Health Organization. (2009). About PAHO. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://new.paho.org/usa/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=122 Periago, M.R. (2011). PAHO/WHO, the UN high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases and wellness week. Retrieved November 4, 2011 from http://new.paho.org/mirtaroses/index.php?id=140 UNF/PAHO Partnership. (2007). Regional community IMCI partnership: Empowering Local Communities to Improve Children’s Health in Ten Latin American Countries. Final Report. Washington, D.C. United Nations Children’s Fund. (2010). About UNICEF. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.unicef.org/about/index.html United Nations Economic and Social Council. (2011). Information about the council. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.un.org/en/ecosoc/about/index.shtml United Nurses and Allied Professionals. (2011). About us. Retrieved November 4, 2011, from http://www.unap.org/ United States Agency for International Development. (2010). This is USAID. 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