Why We Need the World Health Organization- Health is an investment in the future
In the context of the “Crisis Management” laboratory, we discussed about some of the most important stakeholders and organizations that their decisions and predictions affect the global community.
As the next step, each team had to take a stakeholder and investigate its actions and predictions about the near future. Our team, Conclavium, selected to analyze World Health Organization.
WHO is probably the most reported organization these days due to the pandemic of the coronovirus we are facing. But if someone investigates what WHO suggested to nations, will find out that the pandemic of Covid 19 we are facing, wasn’t something unexpected for WHO.
From the very beginning, World Health Organization works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.
WHO goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
So let’s look at the main proposals for a better future from the World Health Organization.
Elevating health in the climate debate
The climate crisis is a health crisis. Air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people every year, while climate change causes more extreme weather events, exacerbates malnutrition and fuels the spread of infectious diseases. WHO calls leaders in both the public and private sectors to work together to clean up our air and mitigate the health impacts of climate change.
What is WHO doing?
In 2019, over 80 cities in more than 50 countries committed to WHO are air quality guidelines, agreeing to align their air pollution and climate policies.
Antimicrobial resistance
The development of antibiotics, antivirals and antimalarials are some of modern medicine’s greatest successes. Now, time with these drugs is running out. Antimicrobial resistance — the ability of bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi to resist these medicines — threatens to send us back to a time when we were unable to easily treat infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, gonorrhoea, and salmonellosis.
Making health care fairer
WHO is also providing guidance on how countries can better reduce inequality in health care, such as by improving the governance and management of public and private health services.
Preparing for epidemics
It is not a matter of if another pandemic will strike again , but when.
Meanwhile, vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever are spreading as mosquito populations move into new areas, fanned by climate change.
WHO is advising countries. to strengthen their health care systems since from the coronavirus pandemic we saw many Health care systems collapsing.
One of the best ways to reduce inequalities is through primary health care by providing access to the most vulnerable.
WHO is calling all the countries and especially the most underdeveloped to invest from their gross domestic product to health care.
Non communicable diseases
Non communicable diseases, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, are collectively responsible for over 70% of all deaths worldwide. The rise of these diseases has been driven by five major risk factors: tobacco use, physical inactivity, the harmful use of alcohol, unhealthy diets and air pollution.
Discussion at European level
The next step was to present the proposals and actions of WHO during the class of “Crisis Management” and discuss with the other teams about similar actions led by other stakeholders.
Each team analyzed the most important foundings and started a discussion about initiatives by those stakeholders than can change the world and improve our lives.
GDPR and Privacy
Our team highlighted and stressed the The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR is the European Union’s new legal framework which governs the collection and processing of users’ personal data. The GDPR effected on May 25, 2018. The GDPR applies to all entities based in an EU country that process personal data, as well as all entities worldwide that process personal data belonging to EU residents.
For our team the framework of privacy and protection of personal data is particularly important and that is why we stood for it as an initiative that improves our lives.
Other initiatives we discussed in the workshop and highlighted were mental health and peace. Both are key issues for improving living conditions in Europe and nations must give importance since without peace and mental health of citizens we cant even dream for a better future.
Dimitris Bounias Pavlos Stratikopoulos dimitris boutsikow Philip Maltambes Νίκος Παπασυριόπουλος @delicious ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΣ ΧΩΡΙΑΝΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ Nick Noulas Alex Dimou
