International institutional legitimacy and the World Health Organization

摘要

The global health community continues to look to the World Health Organization (WHO) to solve current global health governance (GHG) problems. Until the 1990s, nation-states and multilateral organisations with state members governed international health, and WHO played a prominent role, coordinating worldwide efforts such as smallpox eradication with a few partner organisations. WHO also provided international reporting and handled disease outbreaks through the International Health Regulations. The world still sees WHO as the leading global health governor, and proposals abound to reform it, to use its treaty abilities more regularly and to give it enforcement powers-all in the absence of real institutional alternatives.