An Urgent Call for the Renaissance of the World Health Organization: Needed Now More than Ever Before

The World Health Organization (WHO) remains the most authoritative actor in global health in the world's history. However, its roles and prestige have reduced over time, and the trend, though dangerous to global health, might not change if practical and radical changes are not put in place. The deficiencies to properly contain and manage the recent Ebola and Zika virus epidemics are fresh and glaring examples (1). Transparency, substandard institutional reform to meet current challenges, funding gaps, and undefined scope of action characterize the WHO of today. This year's elections of the next WHO Director-General could be a unique opportunity for the WHO to undertake reforms to regain the trust it rightly deserves. Epidemics, humanitarian crises, resistance to medication (HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria), explosion of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and cancers are clear indications that the WHO cannot claim to be able to singlehandedly cope with these challenges. Constraints could arise from inadequate funding, human resource and technical management gaps, and lack of coordination and needed expertise in certain areas. The growing involvement of many organizations, research institutions, industry (2), and academia in the health welfare of the world compels institutional reform within the organization to explore and contain collaborations with organizations with proven expertise in specific domains. One of the key unmet ideals in the history of the world, for the high-, low-, and middle-income countries has been under appraisal of social determinants of health, inequities in health care, and disregard of health-care provision as a fundamental human right (3). In the interview report with candidates for this years' WHO Director-General position, this theme was unanimously recognized as a priority action area from all aspirants (4). This must remain a key mandate of the WHO. The health of mothers and children is a top priority, despite the remarkable gains that have been recorded in the past decades. There is growing evidence of increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and cardio-metabolic adverse outcomes in early adulthood resulting from materno-fetal health status (5, 6). The socioeconomic potential of the world is largely dependent on acceptable maternal and child health status and in no way should be undermined. Disaster response and preparedness coupled with epidemiologic surveillance of disease are issues necessitating coordination from an authoritative structure such as the WHO. Creating healthy collaborating frameworks with organizations with proven track records in humanitarian response and disasters could relieve the organization from unnecessary and potentially sub-optimal …