International Health Organisations
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Direct answer
International health work is anchored by the World Health Organization, established on 7 April 1948 (World Health Day) with headquarters in Geneva, 194 member states, a World Health Assembly, a 34-member Executive Board and a Secretariat led by the Director-General, with India in the South-East Asia Region headquartered in New Delhi. Around it operate the UN agencies — UNICEF (1946, New York, children), UNFPA (1969, reproductive health), FAO (1945, Rome, food and nutrition), ILO (1919, Geneva, occupational health) — plus financing partnerships such as the Global Fund (2002) and Gavi (2000), and the Red Cross movement beginning with the ICRC (1863, Geneva). The exam rewards pairs: founding year, headquarters, and each agency's signature contribution to Indian public health.
What you must remember
- WHO (1948): HQ Geneva, 194 member states; World Health Assembly (policy), Executive Board (34 members), Director-General; regional structure including SEARO in New Delhi; budget from members' dues and voluntary contributions.
- WHO milestones to quote: smallpox eradication declared 1980, Expanded Programme on Immunisation 1974, Alma-Ata declaration 1978, Framework Convention on Tobacco Control 2005, International Health Regulations 2005 — and India-specific, SEAR certified polio-free 27 March 2014 and the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine at Jamnagar 2022.
- UNICEF (1946, New York): child survival and development — immunisation, nutrition, education; publishes The State of the World's Children.
- UNFPA (1969) and FAO (1945, Rome): UNFPA for reproductive health and family-planning data; FAO for food security and nutrition, with the Codex Alimentarius run jointly with WHO.
- ILO (1919, Geneva): occupational safety and health conventions; India is a founding member.
- Health financing partnerships: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (2002, Geneva) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (2000, Geneva) — both major funders of Indian programmes; the World Bank (IBRD 1944) finances health-system projects.
- Red Cross movement: ICRC 1863 (Geneva, conflict protection), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies 1919 (disasters); Indian Red Cross Society 1920.- NGO layer: Rotary International's Polioplus role in eradication, CARE, Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (1971, Nobel 1999) — vivas ask for one example of NGO contribution.
Mapping the alphabet soup onto one Indian district
Every agency in this chapter is visible in a single Indian district's workplan. WHO's SEARO office supplies technical norms for the TB programme and polio certification; UNICEF funds cold-chain equipment and drives immunisation plus the iodised-salt campaign; UNFPA supports family-planning logistics in high-focus districts; Gavi co-finances pentavalent and PCV introduction; the Global Fund bankrolls bed nets, ARVs and TB drugs; the World Bank financed the disease-control projects that built surveillance capacity; Rotary volunteers staffed pulse-polio booths; the Red Cross runs blood banks. Global health governance is not a lecture topic — it is the funding and technical layer beneath a district health action plan, and naming that layer converts a list into an argument.
Then read WHO's own structure as an instrument: the Assembly sets policy, the Board executes between sessions, the Secretariat with regional offices adapts globally. When India hosted the Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar (2022), the mechanism was an Assembly resolution translated into a host-country agreement — the machinery working as designed.
How the exam frames it
Match-the-following questions dominate: agency to headquarters (WHO, ILO, ICRC, Global Fund, Gavi — all Geneva; UNICEF — New York; FAO — Rome), agency to year, and agency to function. Viva probes: which conference launched "Health for All" (Alma-Ata, a WHO-UNICEF joint conference, 1978); who certifies eradication (the World Health Assembly, as for smallpox 1980); which regional office hosts India (SEARO, New Delhi). The most frequent slip is conflating the ICRC with the Federation — ICRC handles armed-conflict protection under the Geneva Conventions, the Federation coordinates disaster response through national societies. A modern differentiator worth one prepared line: Gavi and the Global Fund are public-private financing partnerships, not UN agencies — status questions catch candidates who call everything "UN bodies".
Frequently asked questions
When was WHO established and what is its structure?
The World Health Organization came into being on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, a World Health Assembly of 194 member states setting policy, a 34-member Executive Board, and a Secretariat under the Director-General with six regional offices including SEARO in New Delhi.
What are WHO's landmark achievements relevant to India?
Smallpox eradication declared in 1980, certification of India's South-East Asia Region as polio-free on 27 March 2014, the Alma-Ata primary-care declaration of 1978, and the Jamnagar Global Centre for Traditional Medicine established 2022.
What does UNICEF do and how is it funded?
Founded in 1946 and headquartered in New York, UNICEF protects child survival, nutrition and education, funded entirely by voluntary contributions.
How do the Global Fund and Gavi differ from WHO?
The Global Fund (2002) and Gavi (2000) are financing partnerships that disburse money for AIDS, TB, malaria and immunisation, whereas WHO is a technical norm-setting UN agency.
What distinguishes the ICRC from the Red Cross Federation?
The ICRC, founded 1863 in Geneva, protects victims of armed conflict under the Geneva Conventions, while the 1919 International Federation coordinates disaster relief through national societies such as the Indian Red Cross.