The Effectiveness of the World Health Organization in Pandemics and the Future of the Post-Pandemic Era

Abstract

World Health Organization (WHO) is the specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) which was established in 1948. It has its Headquarters in Geneva, 6 different Regional Offices and149 Country Offices. World Health Organization’s mandate, priority areas and working fields are decided by its Member States. Its primary decision-making body is the World Health Assembly (WHA) with WHO Executive Board (EB). World Health Organization’s work is determined and reviewed at the WHA by instructions and approval of official delegations authorized by Member States. World Health Organization Director General and staff, together constituting Secretariat, are responsible of implementation of decisions. WHO is an organization that is setting standards and norms in the field of global health, therefore WHO has an impact and mandate on particularly as the directing and coordinating authority, norm and standard setting agency, providing support in cases of emergencies and development of health policies health systems countries. Being a legal framework of detection and control of public health risks at its origin before crossing border, The International Health Regulations (IHR imposes some obligations on WHO and assigns some responsibilities on Member States. Some global health problems and lately the COVID-19 pandemic has led to some criticisms on World Health Organization and brought up the future of World Health Organization for discussion in the post-pandemic era.

Satisfaction with COVID-19 measures and financial expectations in Turkey

“…The WHO has been subjected to serious criticism due to the delay in the declaration of the pandemic, China's failure to act transparently in reporting cases to WHO, and the delay in the declaration of the pandemic. Donald Trump's naming of COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus" and the WHO's claim that it has adopted pro-China policies and that it will suspend financial contributions have led to more monitoring of the organization's activities (Buzgan & Güner, 2020). One of the interesting findings of this study is that 53.5% of the participants in general are not satisfied with the COVID-19 measures of the WHO.…”

“…Similarly, social support programs across disadvantaged groups can be a determinant in determining satisfaction with the measures taken by the government. In addition, the fact that there was no shortage of supply of medical equipment and supplies, as in some countries, right after the first case was seen in Turkey, and even the aid given to some countries, may be another factor in the satisfaction of Turkish citizens with the COVID-19 measures (Koca, 2020b;Buzgan & Güner, 2020). In addition, the fact that Turkey has a good public health and intensive care infrastructure against COVID-19, has a strong organizational capacity, and implements social and economic measures urgently may be the reason for satisfaction (OECD, 2021;Bakır, 2020).…”