About WHO

What is WHO?

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations' specialized agency for health and as such, the leading international authority on health matters. WHO was founded in 1948.

What is WHO's role?

WHO helps set the international health agenda and has played a critical role in disease control and prevention for decades.

Its scope of work includes:

• Providing high-level expertise on policy and technical issues through consultants visiting the country or through resident WHO professional staff.

• Supporting policy experimentation and innovation, and stimulating operational research

• Disseminating information on policy experiences, best practices and technical standards through documentation and training.

• Exercising influence on policies and strategies in the health area through interaction with the MOH and the donor community and the management of partnership and technical groups.

• Developing and applying disease control and prevention tools and managing health information and data collection methods.

In recent years, WHO has also been at the forefront of efforts against diseases such as Polio, Malaria, Tuberculosis, SARS, and HIV/AIDS. It has spearheaded mass immunization campaigns, devised strategies to fight diseases and set standards for various public health issues, including maternal and child health.  

Where does WHO work?

WHO works with 192 countries. It has six regional offices, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.   The Western Pacific Regional office of WHO is in Manila, the Philippines. WHO has worked in Viet Nam for more than 50 years, working primarily with the Ministry of Health but increasingly with other partners.

Who works for WHO?

WHO has thousands of international experts in the field, working as staff or consultants. It also has links to key collaborating centres, research institutes and numerous public and private organizations.