Context: Recently, World Health Organization Director General announced the creation of the ‘WHO Foundation’ an entity that will enable it to tap new sources of funding, including the general public.
Key Points

• The WHO Foundation which is recently been planned by WHO, is an independent grant-making foundation that will support WHO efforts to address the most pressing global health challenges by raising new funding from “non-traditional sources”.
• The Foundation will be headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
• The WHO Foundation will play a major role in supporting the global health support ecosystem by funding high-impact initiatives and advancing strategies of innovation, effectiveness, and rapid response
• Further, the foundation is legally independent from the World Health Organization and is established under the laws of Switzerland.
• The WHO Foundation will accept funding from non-traditional sources, including individual major donors, corporate partners and the general public.
• Until now the WHO has been one of the few international organizations which has not traditionally received donations from the general public.

Key facts to be remembered about WHO

• The World Health Organization (WHO), founded in 1948, is a specialized agency of the United Nations with a broad mandate to act as a coordinating authority on international health issues.
• As outlined in its constitution, WHO has a broad mandate to “act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work” within the United Nations system.
• It is made of 194 member states.
• WHO has a headquarters office located in Geneva, Switzerland, six semi-autonomous regional offices that oversee activities in each region, and a network of country offices and representatives around the world. 
• It is led by a Director-General (“DG”), who Is elected to a five-year term.

About World Health Assembly

• The World Health Assembly (WHA), comprised of representatives from WHO’s 194 member states, is the supreme decision-making body for the agency and is convened annually.
• Every six years the WHA negotiates and approves a work plan for WHO (the most recent plan, known as the general programme of work, covers 2019-2023), and every two years it approves a biennial budget for the work plan (the current budget is for 2020-2021).
• WHO’s Executive Board, comprised of 34 members technically qualified in the field of health, facilitates the implementation of the agency’s work plan and provides proposals and recommendations to the Director-General and the WHA.
• The 34 members are drawn from six regions: 7 represent Africa, 6 represent the Americas, 5 represent the Eastern Mediterranean, 8 represent Europe, 3 represent South-East Asia, and 5 represent the Western Pacific.
• Member states within each region designate members to serve on the Executive Board on a rotating basis.
• The U.S. is currently a member of the Executive Board, as one of the representatives from the Americas.
• Recently Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is set to take charge as chairman of the WHO Executive Board at its 147th session.