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United Nations and Global Health

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Global Health

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Abstract

Global health, regardless of how one defines it, is rapidly becoming a field of interest to many health and non-health sector actors, including governments and nongovernmental organizations, public health practitioners, policy-makers, research academics, and funding agencies. The deepening inequalities in health worldwide, changing demographic and epidemiological trends, rising threat of deadly cross-border infectious diseases such as Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic, and disparities in health systems’ ability and preparedness to respond to critical public health emergencies have reinforced the need for a stronger and more concerted global action on health. The United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies, particularly the World Health Organization, have long been regarded as natural custodians of global health. Since its inception in 1945, the UN has positioned itself as the leading voice in global health. The UN Charter (1945) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – UDHR (1948) both highlight the need to promote human health through international cooperation. The right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of all people is enshrined in the UDHR. The question is how has the UN lived up to its role as a leader in global health? This chapter reviews the stewardship role of UN in global health governance. It starts with a brief introduction to the organization, then it reviews the key global health initiatives since its inception, before examining the major global health achievements and challenges. The chapter concludes with an assessment of what the future holds for UN in setting the global health agenda in an increasingly complex geopolitical environment.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. World Health Organization Regional Office, Brazzaville, Congo

    Doris Kirigia

  2. School of Population Health, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Augustine Asante

Authors
  1. Doris Kirigia
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  2. Augustine Asante
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Correspondence to Augustine Asante .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Robin Haring

  2. Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and, Geneva, Switzerland

    Ilona Kickbusch

  3. Charite-Univ.-Med. Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Detlev Ganten

  4. Africa, Brazzaville, Rep of the Congo, World Health Organization Regional Offic, Brazzaville, Congo, Demographic Republic (Zaire)

    Matshidiso Moeti

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Kirigia, D., Asante, A. (2021). United Nations and Global Health. In: Haring, R., Kickbusch, I., Ganten, D., Moeti, M. (eds) Handbook of Global Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05325-3_119-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05325-3_119-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05325-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05325-3

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