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9 The World Health
Organisation: a time for
reconstitution
Richard E. Wagner
The World Health Organisation (WHO) was established in 1948 as
one of several global organisations that were created in the aftermath
of World War II. Among those other organisations were the
International Monetary Fund, the International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (which became the World Bank), and
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (which became the
World Trade Organisation). While this essay is concerned with the
WHO and its activities as these are revealed in an examination of
its budget for 2006–07, much of the underlying argument that
informs this examination applies to international organisations
generally.
This chapter unfolds in five stages. The first stage asks what
would constitute reasonable performance for the WHO, and does so
by postulating two concepts of performance that would surely
command wide assent: smallpox and Mother Teresa.
The second stage examines the WHO’s budget for 2006–07,
exploring the extent to which those concepts can be identified
within the WHO’s line items. While this exploration does not show
that the WHO has been an abject failure, it nonetheless gives the
agency a low grade. To some, this might constitute a minimal pass
while to others it would mean that the agency has failed.
Thethirdstageexaminesthecollectivistpresuppositionsonwhich
the WHO was founded, and which to this day shape its performance.