World Health Organization

The World Health Organization is a United Nations specialized agency that coordinates international public health, sets health standards, and supports countries in addressing health threats.

World Health Assembly: The World Health Organization’s decision-making body, composed of delegations from its member states. Member states set the agency’s priorities and approve its budget through this assembly.
World Health Organization Essential Medicines List: A WHO model list identifying medicines that health systems should make available to meet priority needs. It gives countries a shared basis for selecting medicines for public provision.
World Health Organization Constitution: The treaty that established the WHO and defines its purpose, membership, and governing structure. The constitution gives the agency its mandate and defines health broadly.
Brock Chisholm: A Canadian physician and psychiatrist who served as the WHO’s first director-general from 1948 to 1953. Chisholm led the new agency as it established its early priorities and structure.
World Bank: An international financial institution that provides loans, grants, and expertise for development and poverty reduction. Unlike the WHO, it can finance health-system projects through lending and development programs.
WHO Executive Board: The World Health Organization body that implements Health Assembly decisions and advises the agency. It prepares the assembly’s agenda and carries forward its policy decisions.
WHO Model List of Essential In Vitro Diagnostics: A WHO list of diagnostic tests considered essential for effective health care. It extends the agency’s essential-medicines approach to laboratory and point-of-care testing.
International Sanitary Conferences: A series of 19th- and early 20th-century meetings that coordinated international measures against infectious disease. These conferences were institutional predecessors to the WHO’s global health coordination.
Andrija Štampar: A Croatian physician and public-health pioneer who helped draft the WHO Constitution and served as its first World Health Assembly president. Štampar helped shape the agency’s founding principles and governance.
UNICEF: A United Nations agency that works to protect children’s rights and improve their health, education, and welfare. UNICEF delivers child-focused programs, while the WHO sets broader health standards and guidance.

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