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Imagining alternative paths for WHO 75 years in

[...]Chisholm, an avowed opponent of Cold War rivalries playing out at WHO, refrained from defying the USA or mobilising member states from the Global South, and stepped down after one term. With WHO's third Director-General, Danish physician Halfdan Mahler, thwarted by Cold War tensions, the A...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2023-04, Vol.401 (10383), p.1149-1151
Main Authors: Birn, Anne-Emanuelle, Kumar, Ramya, Arteaga-Cruz, Erika, Twala, Baone, Baduza, Mbali
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:[...]Chisholm, an avowed opponent of Cold War rivalries playing out at WHO, refrained from defying the USA or mobilising member states from the Global South, and stepped down after one term. With WHO's third Director-General, Danish physician Halfdan Mahler, thwarted by Cold War tensions, the Alma-Ata Declaration steered clear of endorsing national health services and free health care; nonetheless, its espousal of community-driven, bottom-up PHC efforts spawned several path-breaking PHC models in Global South settings. [...]WHO became reliant on ear-marked budget contributions from member states, private foundations, the World Bank, and other actors: these rose from 20% in the 1970s to over 80% in 2022, substantially compromising WHO's independence. WHO's 2005–08 Commission on Social Determinants of Health declared that “social injustice is killing people on a grand scale” and called for “tackl[ing] the inequitable distribution of power, money and resources”, as well as a single tier of health care financed through general taxation or mandatory insurance.
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)00677-3