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India’s Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, is now the Chair of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Executive Board. Will this bring with it increased say of India in the most authoritative and powerful health sector grouping of nations? And will this mean that WHO will now become more transparent, especially on the issue of origin and spread of n-coronavirus? Questions are many. Let’s take them up one by one.
(Source: Facebook page of World Health Organization South-East Asia Region – WHO SEARO)
The Executive Board
To begin with, WHO consists of the World Health Assembly (WHA) comprising of all member states, which decides policies; the Executive Board, which oversees the implementation of policies and decisions of WHA; and the Secretariat headed by the Director General, who handles day-to-day functioning of the organisation. The Executive Board has total 34 member countries elected by the World Health Assembly. These member countries occupy the office for a 3-year term and individuals from member countries representing the Executive Board must possess technical know-how in the health space. The top position is filled by election within the member states and on 22 May, India was formally elected as the Chair.
Dr. Vardhan has taken charge as the individual representing India on the Board and will vacate the office of the Chair in May next year. However, as stated in the preceding paragraph, he will remain a member of the Board till 2023.
The COVID-19 crisis
There is a reason why India’s chairing the Board has made such big news. This comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic that has forced countries to impose lockdowns to contain the spread of the deadly virus. WHO is the world’s leading authority on how countries will react to the outbreak. From guidelines for prevention to vaccine development, WHO has a dominating role. This can be understood by the fact that it was WHO that issued initial warnings of the spread, shaped global response and even named the novel-coronavirus as COVID-19 on 11 February 2020.
(Also read: COVID-19 Crisis_ What Will Become of the Indian Economy)
Investigation into the origin
Many countries, led by President Trump-ruled United States, have voiced their concerns over the origin of COVID-19. At the recent World Health Assembly meeting, WHO member states adopted a resolution for an inquiry into global coronavirus response.
The Re-inventing of WHO
There have been voices from all quarters regarding the various multilateral organisations becoming a tool of influential members. The current WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom, is facing criticism for siding with China and not acting in an unprejudiced manner with respect to the coronavirus crisis. Such is the gravity of this issue that President Trump has threatened to cut all funding to WHO unless truth comes out in the open. Indian PM has advocated transparency in the functioning of all organisations including WHO and WTO (World Trade Organisation). Hence, India, as Chair of the Board, can see some long-pending reforms in how WHO functions.
(Previous blog: COVID-19 Crisis- Buyer Got Paid to Buy Crude Oil. How?)
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