The World Health Report 2000: World Health Organization Health Policy Steering off Course—Changed Values, Poor Evidence, and Lack of Accountability

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 503-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eeva Ollila ◽  
Meri Koivusalo
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Reliable Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Health Report ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Systems Performance

The World Health Report 2000 on health systems has raised concerns about its political biases, its methods and indicators, and its lack of reliable data. Tracing the origins of the Report, this article argues that it counteracts many of the concerns that gave rise to preparation of the Report in the first place. The mutually agreed-upon value-base, expressed in the Health for All strategy, has been largely abandoned. The Report includes contradictory messages, and many of its recommendations are not evidence-based. Furthermore, the ranking of countries according to their health systems' performance is not useful for health-policy-making, even if the methods and data could be improved. Because the member states and governing bodies of the WHO were not consulted during the production of the Report, the WHO secretariat has not received a mandate to change the value-base of the WHO's health policy or the aims of the Report. The WHO should return to its mandate as a normative intergovernmental U.N. agency on health.

scholarly journals Is Autonomy a Universal Value of Human Existence? Scope of Autonomy in Medical Practice: A Comparative Study between Western Medical Ethics and Islamic Medical Ethics

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rathor MY ◽  
Azarisman Shah MS ◽  
Hasmoni MH
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
World Health ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Health Report ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Contemporary Medicine

The practice of contemporary medicine has been tremendously influenced by western ideas and it is assumed by many that autonomy is a universal value of human existence. In the World Health Report 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) considered autonomy a “universal” value of human life against which every health system in the world should be judged. Further in Western bioethics, patient autonomy and self -determination prevails in all sectors of social and personal life, a concept unacceptable to some cultures. In principle, there are challenges to the universal validity of autonomy, individualism and secularism, as most non-Western cultures are proud of their communal relations and spiritualistic ethos and, thereby imposing Western beliefs and practices as aforementioned can have deleterious consequences. Religion lies at the heart of most cultures which influences the practice patterns of medical professionals in both visible and unconscious ways. However, religion is mostly viewed by scientists as mystical and without scientific proof. Herein lies the dilemma, whether medical professionals should respect the cultural and religious beliefs of their patients? In this paper we aim to discuss some of the limitations of patient's autonomy by comparing the process of reasoning in western medical ethics and Islamic medical ethics, in order to examine the possibility and desirability of arriving at a single, unitary and universally acceptable notion of medical ethics. We propose a more flexible viewpoint that accommodates different cultural and religious values in interpreting autonomy and applying it in an increasingly multilingual and multicultural, contemporaneous society in order to provide the highest level of care possible.

scholarly journals WHO highlights need for collective international efforts to face emerging diseases

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (35) ◽  
Author(s):  
Collective Editorial team
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Emerging Diseases ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Health Report ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

On 23 August, the World Health Organization published its latest World Health Report, subtitled ‘A Safer Future: Global Public Health Security in the 21st Century’.

scholarly journals The European WHO mental health programme and the World Health Report 2001: input and implications

2003 ◽  
Vol 183 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Rutz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Health Report ◽  
Basic Care ◽  
Mental Health Programme ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Health Programme

When the mental health programme of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe was ‘resurrected’ in 1999, a review of the situation in the European Region of the WHO provided a surprisingly diverse picture. In this Region, which stretches from Greenland to Malta, from Ireland to Kamchatka, dramatic differences were noted in life expectancy and suicidality, income, housing, employment and social cohesion, as well as services, social support, human rights and the accessibility of basic care. In many societies, stigma and discrimination effectively excluded the mentally vulnerable from society and its basic services. Stigmatisation also hindered early intervention, rehabilitation and reintegration into society (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 1999, 2001).

scholarly journals NCDs, gender, intersectionality and the World Health Organization

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
C Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Health Systems ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
World Health ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Key Informant ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Different Levels

Abstract Claire Somerville, PhD (Gender Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva) will present research that investigates how gender and intersectionality analysis of NCDs is integrated into different levels of health policy and programming and within country level health systems and services by the World Health Organization (WHO). The research is the first of its kind and is based on a WHO document analysis and key informant interviews with key representatives working on issues of gender and NCDs within WHO. The findings of Somerville's investigation reveal how gender and its intersections is understood and mainstreamed at all three organizational levels of the WHO (headquarters (HQ), regions, and country level offices) and what the key impediments are not only in terms of mainstreaming a more relational and intersectional understanding of gender in general, but specifically in relation to NCDs.

World Health Report 2000: a step towards evidence-based health policy

The Lancet ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 357 (9269) ◽  
pp. 1698-1700 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Murray ◽  
Julio Frenk
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
World Health ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
World Health Report ◽  
Health Report
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