Development and Roles of World Health Organization - Essay Example

The paper "Development and Roles of the World Health Organization" is a good example of an essay on health sciences and medicine. The emergence and development of the World Health Organization (WHO) have made a positive social impact on global health organizations and communities. WHO has been capable of bridging the health gap of economically, socially, and culturally disadvantaged communities and nations all over the world. Ever since its founding in 1948 the organization has undertaken a number of global health initiatives varying from the Global yaws control program, eradication of smallpox, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, anti-tobacco campaign and the Global Treaty on Tobacco Control, Adoption of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health, to the formation of international health regulations. In many of its global healthcare initiatives, WHO has successfully coordinated and managed services and initiatives from a number of global health organizations, communities, NGOs, private voluntary organizations, philanthropic foundations, and religious as well as secular organizations. WHO has been instrumental in coordinating the services of such global health organizations like the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), The World Bank, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Global Health Council (GHC), UNAIDS, the GAVI Alliance, and the Global Fund. For instance, the Global yaws control program, initiated by WHO to prevent ‘a crippling and disfiguring disease that afflicted some 50 million people in 1950’ was later taken up by the UNICEF (WHO, 2007, p. 4). Similarly, UNAIDS continues WHO’s anti-AIDS campaign on a global basis while PAHO has had a remarkable anti-AIDS campaign in the Caribbean. As pointed out by Clift (2013, p. 41), the development of WHO as a coordinator of global health paved way for a number of initiatives from various parts of the globe to address ‘specific disease problems.’ Similarly, WHO triggered a number of new global initiatives such as the Stop TB Partnership or Roll Back Malaria campaigns (Clift, 2013, p. 11). The organization’s global campaign to fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria also focused on community empowerment with a view to enhancing self-help and social support among vulnerable communities (WHO, 2009, p. 3). WHO has been able to offer solutions as well as solace for the poverty, misery, malnutrition, and ill-health of many underprivileged and marginalized global communities. It can thus be concluded that WHO today has grown to be a global health coordinator that exerts positive social impacts on global health organizations and communities.