World Health Organization
Agenda - Addressing Women and Children’s Needs in the post-COVID-19 World.
The World Health Organization (WHO), founded in 1948, serves as the United Nations’ (UN) health and wellbeing coordinating body across 194 Member States. WHO focuses on matters of public health as envisioned by the UN, beginning with the adoption of the WHO Constitution at the International Health Conference in 1946. The organization seeks to address health in all aspects, recognizing health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely as the absence of disease or infirmity, recognizing that the highest standard of health is a fundamental right for all people. The Covid-19 Pandemic has had devastating effects for the world community’s pursuit of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 – Good Health and Well Being. Article 2 of WHO’s constitution mandates that the organization is to foster mental, maternal, and child health, and to provide information, counsel, and assistance in the field of health; however the health of children and women suffered tremendously due to the pandemic, with over 80 million children missing out on one or more life-saving vaccines, while stillbirths and mortality rates during birth increased for women across the globe, but especially in the developing world. As children miss out on necessary treatments and health services, a factor further exacerbated for girls, future health complications, health costs, chances of death, and risk of continued health crises all increase.