Introduction
Nowadays, several prominent nonprofit organizations seek to contribute to people’s health and quality of life. Undoubtedly, the World Health Organization (WHO) can be considered the most influential among them. Found in 1948, this entity now serves as the uniting platform for 194 Member States (Cueto et al., 2019; WHO, n.d.e). According to Cueto et al. (2019), its main areas of focus include “centralized epidemiological surveillance, campaigns against epidemics, disease control, and the reform of health systems” (p. 1). However, as with any other organization, WHO has to monitor its activities and business processes to assess one’s effectiveness and understand the areas that necessitate improvement. For this reason, the current report will discuss the role of WHO’s mission and vision in promoting health, factors that assist and hinder the organization’s progress, its impact, and its dependence on policies, legislation, and funding. Moreover, it will elaborate on how nurses can be involved with the organization to help promote health in the local communities.
The Organization’s Mission and Vision
WHO is a huge organization that includes more than 8000 professional workers and many volunteers, and partnering companies. Thus, mission and vision are really important part of the organization that helps to ensure that all the elements work to achieve the same goal. According to the WHO’s official website, its mission is “to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable” (WHO, n.d.c, para. 3). On the other hand, the organization’s vision is building “a world in which all peoples attain the highest possible level of health” (WHO, n.d.c, para. 3). Therefore, it is seen that both mission and vision serve to remind all the workers and managers of the organization that their utmost goal is to contribute to public health and safety improvements.
As evidence that the latter is not just an attractive marketing tool that nobody cares about, the organization’s official website lists over 60 initiatives that the company actively manages both locally and internationally. As for the former, for instance, in 2019, WHO and the Ghanaian government started a campaign against malaria by providing free vaccines for the public (WHO, n.d.b). On the international level, the organization launched the Global Diabetes Compact which aims to inform people about the prevention of diabetes and ensure that all diagnosed patients have access to adequate treatment (WHO, n.d.d). Thus, WHO seeks to address specific local problems as well as issues that are present all over the world.
Factors That Assist and Hinder the Organization’s Activities
Several factors ensure the effectiveness of WHO in promoting the health of the local communities. For example, the organization possesses at least some medical infrastructure in all the member countries that allow it to better understand the regional needs and provide help more effectively. Additionally, WHO has a significant number of professionals that can be moved relatively freely from one location to another, addressing specialists’ shortages. Yet, some barriers hinder the organization’s activities. They may include limited population awareness concerning medical services, difficulties to coordinate actions with the local governments and health providers, and a worldwide shortage of professionals in certain spheres.
The Organization’s Dependence on Policy, Legislation, and Funding
As any transnationally operating entity, WHO’s activity is highly sensitive to local policies and legislation. For instance, Khan et al. (2018) maintain that 48 WHO Member States do not have any policies and laws concerning the treatment and support of people with disabilities. Such a lack of commitment from the local leaders makes it harder for the organization to create the necessary infrastructure to help disabled people. Moreover, the entity is hugely dependent on funding, especially from such countries as the United States, Japan, and China which provide 24.8%, 9.7%, and 7.9% of the total financing, respectively (WHO, n.d.a). Therefore, any decisions by these countries to reduce the investments may greatly affect individuals and local communities, especially in poorer countries, as people there would have less access to free medication.
WHO’s Impact
Considering what was discussed above, it becomes clear that WHO has a tremendous influence on individuals’ health and safety needs globally. One of the greatest impacts among them is that the organization conducts and shares the research findings on how to treat diseases most effectively. As a result, even the least developed countries have access to knowledge that otherwise would necessitate major investments. Additionally, some of the entity’s successes include its important role in smallpox eradication and active leadership during the SARS epidemic (Council on Foreign Relations, 2021). Furthermore, WHO puts continuous efforts to finish COVID-19 epidemics and help the most vulnerable groups.
Nurses’ Possible Contribution to WHO
There are also several ways in which each medical worker, including nurses, can contribute to the efforts of WHO. For instance, the organization usually initiates programs that facilitate expertise exchange between health professionals worldwide. In this regard, recently, WHO and Pan American Health Organization (PANO) launched an initiative that intends to collect ideas concerning the global learning strategy to implement it in practice in the future (PANO, n.d.). Moreover, nurses can join some of the WHO’s short-term volunteering programs domestically or internationally.
Conclusion
Overall, the current report analyzed the role of the WHO in the promotion of global health and safety. It showed that the organization’s mission and vision are central to its successful operations. Additionally, its contributions were discussed in more detail, and factors that assist and hinder its operations were presented. Furthermore, it was shown that local policies and legislation, and funding can significantly affect the entity’s activities, especially in poorer regions. Finally, the report provided suggestions on how nurses can help WHO’s activities.
References
Council on Foreign Relations. (2021).What does the World Health Organization do? Web.
Cueto, M., Brown, T. M., & Fee, E. (2019). The World Health Organization: A history. Cambridge University Press.
Khan, F., Owolabi, M. O., Amatya, B., Hamzat, T. K., Ogunniyi, A., Oshinowo, H., Elmalik, A., & Galea, M. P. (2018). Challenges and barriers for implementation of the World Health Organization Global Disability Action Plan in low-and middle-income countries. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 50(4), 367-376.
Pan American Health Organization [PAHO]. (n.d.). The World Health Organization invites you to contribute your Big Idea to shape the future of training and learning in achieving better health for all. Web.
WHO. (n.d.a). Assessed contributions. Web.
WHO. (n.d.b). Malaria vaccine implementation programme. Web.
WHO. (n.d.c). Our values. Web.
WHO. (n.d.d). The WHO Global Diabetes Compact. Web.
WHO. (n.d.e).Who we are. Web.