The United Nations system under stress: financial pressures and their consequences

1991 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 365-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Nations System ◽  
Financial Pressures

This essay is about the response by the United Nations system to financial pressures in the 1980s and early 1990s. These pressures resulted from two developments: the decision of the main contributing states to adopt a policy of zero growth in real terms in the budgets of the organizations; and the additional withholdings by the United States which resulted from the Kassebaum Amendment to the Senate Foreign Relations Act of August 1985. This required a 20 per cent underpayment by the United States of its assessed financial contributions until a range of reforms in budgetary procedures, judged acceptable by the US Administration, had been introduced. The impact of the resulting financial squeeze is considered with particular reference to three Specialized Agencies: the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Some Kind of a Social Doctor: Martha May Eliot, 1891-1978

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 146-149
Author(s):  
William M. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Pediatric Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Study Child ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Health Organization

Martha May Eliot was one of the most influential pediatricians to hold positions of public authority in the United States during a long and distinguished career. Her name is linked with that of Edwards A. Park in the history of the control of rickets. With Grace Abbott and Katharine Lenroot she brought provisions for children into the Social Security Act, a big step beyond the original plan. within the councils of the American Pediatric Society, she encouraged proposals leading to the landmark study Child Health and Pediatric Education (1949) conducted by the Academy of Pediatrics. For more than 50 years Martha May Eliot took a leading part in the development of health services for mothers and children. She was concerned for children of all countries of the world and worked for them in the great international organizations: the League of Nations, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the world Health Organization. In the United States, her own country, she used her Vision and vigor in the US Children's Bureau, at Yale Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Massachusetts Committee for Children and Youth, as well as in many other governmental and nongovernmental agencies and committees. Her entire career was a fulfillment of a decision and comniitment made early in her life. At Radcliffe she had a great interest in the classics, and her deep appreciation of her cultural heritage enriched her work and her life. While still a Radcliffe student, she determined to study medicine.

scholarly journals The malnutrition bazaar: the case of RUTF

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-118
Author(s):  
Radha Holla
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Food ◽  
Standing Committee ◽  
World Food Programme ◽  
The World ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Nations System

Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children is life-threatening. Its causes range from lack of access to balanced food, to incorrect feeding practices, lack of access to an efficient health system, to clean potable water and sanitation. However, the present approach to managing SAM is fortified packaged food – a paste made with peanuts or other protein rich food such as chickpeas, milk and sugar, to which micronutrients are added. Currently, a version of the paste with less energy levels is also being recommended for treating even moderate forms of malnutrition, as well as for prevention of malnutrition (World Health Organization (WHO), 2012; WHO/UNICEF/WFP, 2014; WFP/UNICEF/USAID, undated). The large number of malnourished children around the globe furnish the food and pharmaceutical industries with an immense potential market for these fortified food packages.  That the market for ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) is rapidly expanding is primarily due to its endorsement by the World Health Organisation (WHO, the World Food Programme, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition[1] (UNSCN) and UNICEF for treating SAM (World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition and the United Nations Children’s Fund. (2007).). Non state actors like Action Against Hunger (Action Contre La Faim) and Médecins Sans Frontières   have also been working to introduce RUTF treatment in countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, Malawi, Yemen, India and Pakistan. In addition, several of the new manufacturers use unethical marketing practices to increase their share of sales. The long-term sustainable solution to reducing undernutrition has to be based on policies that manage conflict, inequity, gender imbalance, food sovereignty and security, infant and young child feeding, basic health services and provision of safe drinking water and sanitation. [1] In 2020, the UN Network for SUN (UNN) merged with the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition (UNSCN) to form a new entity, called UN Nutrition. As of 1 January 2021, the UN Nutrition Secretariat, hosted by FAO headquarters, became operational.

scholarly journals Franco’s Spain and the Politics of International Health

2019 ◽  
pp. 57-87
Author(s):  
David Brydan
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Rockefeller Foundation ◽  
International Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
Franco Regime ◽  
International Health Organizations ◽  
Post War ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Nations System

Liberal international health organizations such as the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO) played an important role in Spain’s post-war search for legitimacy, and social experts served as a vanguard for Spain’s integration into the United Nations system. The idea of international health as a technical, apolitical field was particularly important in enabling the Franco regime to overcome its outsider status. At the height of Spain’s diplomatic isolation after 1945, a fierce battle raged at the WHO over the question of Spanish membership, which saw it excluded from the new organization. But the WHO was one of the first international bodies Spain was admitted to in the 1950s, paving the way to full United Nations membership. Spain’s rapid integration into the WHO reflected the success of the Franco regime in exploiting the ‘technical’ and ‘apolitical’ language of international health to overcome international political opposition.

TRENDS

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1952 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 619-623
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
United States Government ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Emergency Fund

IT APPEARS timely to call attention again to the work and objectives of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Particularly noteworthy is the trend to use this fund more and more in efforts to help other nations help themselves. Thus the mass attack on tuberculosis, yaws and malaria are, it is hoped, bringing those diseases into proportions where their continued control can be more effectively managed. Similarly, increasing attention is being given to the training of professional and technical personnel. The plans and long-range purpose of the UNICEF have recently been described by Maurice Pate, Executive Director of the fund: "Five years ago, in May 1947, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund received its first pledge of support, a contribution of $15,000,000 from the United States Government. A number of other pledges and contributions soon followed, and procurement of supplies was begun. By the middle of 1948, those supplies were reaching several million children. "Those early beginnings were in the minds of many of us at the recent meeting of the Fund's 26-nation Executive Board (April 22-24), for on that occasion UNICEF's aid was extended to the only remaining area of need in which it had not been operating— Africa, south of the Sahara. "In the Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa, Liberia, Togoland, the Cameroons and West Africa, UNICEF, side by side with the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, will soon be working with the governments and people on a number of child-health projects. The largest of these is to be an attack on kwashiokor, a dietary deficiency disease that affects thousands of young children in these regions.

Annual Summary of Vital Statistics—1976

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 797-804
Author(s):  
Myron E. Wegman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Statistics ◽  
The World ◽  
States Data ◽  
International Data ◽  
Health Organization

Data for this article, as in previous reports,1 are drawn principally from the Monthly Vital Statistics Report,2-5 published by the National Center for Health Statistics. The international data come from the Demographic Yearbook6 and the quarterly Population and Vital Statistics Report,7 both published by the Statistical Office of the United Nations, and the World Health Statistics Report,8 published by the World Health Organization. All the United States data for 1976 are estimates by place of occurrence based upon a 10% sample of material received in state offices between two dates, one month apart, regardless of when the event occurred. Experience has shown that for the country as a whole the estimate is very close to the subsequent final figures.

scholarly journals Water and Sanitation in Urban America, 2017–2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (10) ◽  
pp. 1567-1572
Author(s):  
Drew Capone ◽  
Oliver Cumming ◽  
Dennis Nichols ◽  
Joe Brown
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Monitoring Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Water And Sanitation ◽  
Urban America ◽  
Joint Monitoring ◽  
Health Organization

Objectives. To estimate the population lacking at least basic water and sanitation access in the urban United States. Methods. We compared national estimates of water and sanitation access from the World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund Joint Monitoring Program with estimates from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development on homelessness and the American Community Survey on household water and sanitation facilities. Results. We estimated that at least 930 000 persons in US cities lacked sustained access to at least basic sanitation and 610 000 to at least basic water access, as defined by the United Nations. Conclusions. After accounting for those experiencing homelessness and substandard housing, our estimate of people lacking at least basic water equaled current estimates (n = 610 000)—without considering water quality—and greatly exceeded estimates of sanitation access (n = 28 000). Public Health Implications. Methods to estimate water and sanitation access in the United States should include people experiencing homelessness and other low-income groups, and specific policies are needed to reduce disparities in urban sanitation. We recommend similar estimation efforts for other high-income countries currently reported as having near universal sanitation access.

scholarly journals A Quantitative Risk Assessment of Human Salmonellosis from Consumption of Walnuts in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
SOFIA M. SANTILLANA FARAKOS ◽  
RÉGIS POUILLOT ◽  
GORDON R. DAVIDSON ◽  
RHOMA JOHNSON ◽  
INSOOK SON ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rare Event ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Risk Assessment ◽  
World Health ◽  
Baseline Model ◽  
Log Reduction ◽  
Human Salmonellosis ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT We assessed the risk of human salmonellosis from consumption of shelled walnuts in the United States and the impact of 0- to 5-log reduction treatments for Salmonella during processing. We established a baseline model with Salmonella contamination data from 2010 to 2013 surveys of walnuts from California operations to estimate baseline prevalence and levels of Salmonella during preshelling storage and typical walnut processing stages, considered U.S. consumption data, and applied an adapted dose-response model from the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization to evaluate risk of illness per serving and per year. Our baseline model predicted 1 case of salmonellosis per 100 million servings (95% confidence interval [CI], 1 case per 3 million to 1 case per 2 billion servings) of walnuts untreated during processing and uncooked by consumers, resulting in an estimated 6 cases of salmonellosis per year (95% CI, <1 to 278 cases) in the United States. A minimum 3-log reduction treatment for Salmonella during processing of walnuts eaten alone or as an uncooked ingredient resulted in a mean risk of <1 case per year. We modeled the impact on risk per serving of three atypical situations in which the Salmonella levels were increased by 0.5 to 1.5 log CFU per unit pretreatment during processing at the float tank or during preshelling storage or posttreatment during partitioning into consumer packages. No change in risk was associated with the small increase in levels of Salmonella at the float tank, whereas an increase in risk was estimated for each of the other two atypical events. In a fourth scenario, we estimated the risk per serving associated with consumption of walnuts with Salmonella prevalence and levels from a 2014 to 2015 U.S. retail survey. Risk per serving estimates were two orders of magnitude larger than those of the baseline model without treatment. Further research is needed to determine whether this finding reflects variability in Salmonella contamination across the supply or a rare event affecting a portion of the supply.

Determining the impact of knowledge sharing initiatives in international organizations: Case studies

IFLA Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-71
Author(s):  
Linda Stoddart
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Senior Management ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
United Nations System ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Nations System

No one disputes that knowledge is the lifeblood of international organizations and especially specialized agencies of the United Nations. However, there has been little consensus on the best methods to share knowledge, leverage the extensive international expertise and make it available to the constituents and partners of these organizations. What is their strategy for managing knowledge? Do they have one? What impact does it have? What is the role of senior management in championing knowledge sharing in these international organizations? These are the questions this paper addresses through the lenses of the evaluations of current knowledge sharing practices in two institutions located in Geneva, Switzerland, both part of the United Nations system.

The Impact of the United Nations on United States Foreign Policy

1951 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin V. Cohen
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Foreign Policy ◽  
Active Participant ◽  
International Issues ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Impact

During the last five years the United States has been an active participant in the work of the United Nations. During this period the most vital international issues have come before various organs of the United Nations, have been discussed, and in various ways have been acted upon. The question naturally arises what has been the impact of the United Nations on the foreign policy of the United States?

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