Reviewing 75 years of the WHO: successes, challenges and opportunities.

B congratulations to the WHO, which was created on 7 April 1948 and has now reached its Diamond Jubilee. The anniversary fell on World Health Day, with the theme of ‘Health For All’, which has been the WHO’s focus since ‘the attainment by all people of the highest possible standards of health’ was written into its constitution. The WHO has been the United Nations leading agency for global health and currently has over 7,000 staff members at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, six regional offices (catering to the differing health needs of each region) and 150 country offices providing technical support to its 194 Member States. During its 75-year history, it has achieved singular successes, such as launching the primary healthcare (PHC) approach in 1978, the eradication of small pox in 1979, creation of the Stop TB Partnership and responding to disease outbreaks, most notably, the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme of ‘Health For All’ is particularly relevant at this crucial time – there are less than 7 years left to attain Universal Health Coverage and other targets encompassed in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 (including the elimination of TB, AIDS, malaria and diabetes). The WHO coordinates international health issues, advises governments on developing public health and social services, supports governments in eradicating disease, formulates standards for medical education and scientific research, and is mandated as the directing and co-ordinating authority on international health. The world has dramatically changed since the First World Health Assembly met in Geneva in 1948 and established malaria, TB, venereal diseases, maternal and child health, sanitary engineering, and nutrition as its priorities.1 The WHO has a strong normative role to play, and many lowto middle-income countries are heavily dependent on its technical and scientific support to fulfill their obligations on the right to health. Many years after the Alma Ata Declaration in 2005, the World Health Assembly ratified a resolution demanding that every person should be able to access health services and not be subjected to financial hardship. The Union has the role of a non-State actor in official relations with the WHO: ‘official relations’ is granted to non-governmental organisations that contribute significantly to the advancement of public health, and have a sustained and systematic engagement in the interest of the WHO. The Union has collaborated with the WHO on several issues, such as prioritising TB care during COVID-19, following up on fulfilling pledges made at the 2018 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB, air pollution, access to medicines and vaccines, antimicrobial resistance, health of refugees and migrants, new diagnostic tools and investing in research and development.2 Dr Halfdan Mahler was a highly effective Director General of WHO for three terms (1973–1988); during which time the PHC approach gained international recognition. Thirty years later in 2008, he recalled how, at the end of the Alma Ata Conference in 1978, a young African woman physician in beautiful African dress read out the Conference Declaration while many people had tears in their eyes. He commented: