WHO chief says agency is at limit
Source: Agencies |
January 18, 2011, Tuesday
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THE World Health Organisation is not performing well enough across the board because it is over-extended and needs to trim the scope of its operations, the WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said yesterday.
In an assessment of the United Nations body she has headed since 2006, Chan described wasteful overlap with other health financiers and said the WHO needed to concentrate on areas where it can make the most impact.
"We are not functioning at the level of top performance that is increasingly needed, and expected," she told the WHO's executive board, which is reviewing a proposed US$4.54 billion program budget for 2010-2011.
"This organization is over-extended. We are constantly asked to do more and more. This has a limit. We are there," Chan said, describing the range of WHO activities fighting contagious and non-communicable diseases, supporting vaccines, responding to disasters, improving primary health care and setting standards.
The Geneva-based body has also confronted the global tobacco industry and keeps watch on the health impacts of actions by leading food, alcohol and agri-business companies such as Nestle, Diageo and Cargill.
While it has been effective in some areas, including the battle against tropical diseases, "this is not the case in all the areas covered by our last program of work," Chan said.
"WHO needs to change at the administrative, budgetary and programmatic levels. We do not need to change the constitution, but we do need some far-reaching reforms," she said.
The WHO's 2010-2011 budget was initially proposed at US$5.84 billion but was reduced after the global financial crisis. Its program budget in 2008-2009 was US$4.23 billion.
Chan told the executive board that the WHO as well as other international health financiers such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the vaccine body GAVI are facing "serious funding shortfalls."
"The level of WHO engagement should not be governed by the size of a health -problem. Instead, it should be governed by the extent to which WHO can have an impact on the -problem. Others may be positioned to do a better job," she said.
In an assessment of the United Nations body she has headed since 2006, Chan described wasteful overlap with other health financiers and said the WHO needed to concentrate on areas where it can make the most impact.
"We are not functioning at the level of top performance that is increasingly needed, and expected," she told the WHO's executive board, which is reviewing a proposed US$4.54 billion program budget for 2010-2011.
"This organization is over-extended. We are constantly asked to do more and more. This has a limit. We are there," Chan said, describing the range of WHO activities fighting contagious and non-communicable diseases, supporting vaccines, responding to disasters, improving primary health care and setting standards.
The Geneva-based body has also confronted the global tobacco industry and keeps watch on the health impacts of actions by leading food, alcohol and agri-business companies such as Nestle, Diageo and Cargill.
While it has been effective in some areas, including the battle against tropical diseases, "this is not the case in all the areas covered by our last program of work," Chan said.
"WHO needs to change at the administrative, budgetary and programmatic levels. We do not need to change the constitution, but we do need some far-reaching reforms," she said.
The WHO's 2010-2011 budget was initially proposed at US$5.84 billion but was reduced after the global financial crisis. Its program budget in 2008-2009 was US$4.23 billion.
Chan told the executive board that the WHO as well as other international health financiers such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the vaccine body GAVI are facing "serious funding shortfalls."
"The level of WHO engagement should not be governed by the size of a health -problem. Instead, it should be governed by the extent to which WHO can have an impact on the -problem. Others may be positioned to do a better job," she said.
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