WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

Effectiveness of World Health Organization (WHO)

Effectiveness of World Health Organization (WHO)

Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the specialized agency within the United Nations (UN) concerned with protecting and improving the world's public health. WHO's main objective is to attain the highest possible level of health for all people of the world. The organization very broadly defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. The effectiveness of WHO improves health by setting norms and standards, providing countries with technical advice and assistance, and advocating changes in public health policies. WHO is also the world's foremost source of international information concerning demographic and health trends, the occurrence and burden of chronic and infectious diseases and disabilities, and the provision of public health, medical, and environmental health services by countries (Ustun, 2003, pp: 78).

Discussion and Analysis

The effectiveness of WHO undertakes many activities to identify, help, and protect people with disabilities. Specifically, it works to ensure the human and legal rights of persons with disabilities, provides community-based rehabilitation services to treat the disabled, conducts various surveys to estimate the worldwide extent of disabilities, and develops, tests, and widely disseminates measures of disability (Ustun, 2003, pp: 81).

The WHO's Disability and Rehabilitation team (DAR), for example, attempts to ensure equal opportunity and promote the human rights of people with disabilities by supporting member states in framing and implementing policies and involving community participation. Major activities of the DAR include establishing methods to quickly identify and reduce the impact of impairment, improving access to rehabilitation facilities and services, integrating rehabilitation services into nations' primary health care systems, promoting community-based rehabilitation programs, and strengthening the interactions among people with disabilities, health care workers, professionals, and the community (Yamey, 2002, pp: 1296).

To measure the extent of disabilities in populations and to determine worldwide trends in the occurrence of disabilities, the DAR periodically conducts surveys. Based on the results of a recent survey (2003), the DAR estimates about 600 million people, or up to 10 percent of the world's population, experienced some type of disability that caused difficulties in common daily activities. It found that 80 percent of the world's disabled lived in low-income countries. In addition, the majority of people with disabilities are poor and lack access to basic services, including rehabilitation facilities. The survey also found that the world's disabled population ...