The United Nations, established in 1945 after the second world war, is the largest organization in existence, with 193 member states. They were established to help keep world peace after the devastating damage of the second world war. This inquiry will look into the United Nation’s past, and its branch, the World Health Organization. It will also discuss how the United Nations can continue to change to suit the needs of the world.
The United Nations have four main goals; to keep peace throughout the world, to develop friendly relationships, to assist nations in encouraging human rights, and to operate as a centre - a community to achieve these goals. The United Nations created this video to show what the United Nations is, what it does, and an overview of its branches. The United Nations have specialties in many fields, they have established other organizations like the World Health Organization to deal with the health and safety needs of the world. I think the United Nations have come a long way since 1945, when they were established. They need to continue to change if they want to be ko te mea pai rawa.
The World Health Organization was established in 1948 to further international cooperation in public health conditions. The World Health Organization have been amazingly successful so far, with their eradication of both Polio, and Smallpox. When they were established, the World Health Organization were given a broad mandate to “promote the attainment of the highest possible level of health. A state of physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or infirmity.” The World Health Organization has carried this out well since 1948, and will continue to do so in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 Pandemic has many people doubting the United Nations and the World Health Organization. It has been said that the United Nations didn't respond well to the crisis, and blame has been attributed to them for poor handling. This criticism is not warranted and perhaps has been led by leaders who want to deflect scrutiny away from themselves. However, the United Nations has used their finances to assist all struggling countries, and has launched recovery and vaccine development collaborations like the Access to Covid-19 tools accelerator.
The WHO were also blamed for not working well with other countries who were struggling. This statement is completely wrong because the experts directly involved in recovering were from Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, Russia, Singapore and the US. All of these experts worked with their particular countries to survive the crisis. The WHO also launched the Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund, a place for individuals to directly give money to the WHO. I expect this will help them out enormously, and was the right thing to do. Although a direct figure of how much the Covid-19 pandemic has cost the UN and WHO is not available yet, it is expected to be many billions of dollars. With the yearly budget of the World Health Organization, a meager 2.5 billion dollars, they have worked well to contain the pandemic.
This graph shows where the money of the United Nations is going.
To improve their handling of the next global pandemic, the World Health Organization needs to be funded with the same generosity as the Movie Pirates of the Carribean, On Stranger Tides ($378.5 million) or the US military (721 billion a year).
The United Nations will have to work hard to keep up with all the issues that are constantly arising in the world today. They will need to change the way they are working to do this. One way of doing this, is to focus on keeping peace throughout the world, then working along with all 193 countries to solve other issues, like climate change. Mr Andrew Greig, a United Nations peacekeeper, believes countries need to stand together to stop global conflict. I back this up, although, achieving this goal might take years, and cost the United Nations even more money. I also think that it is a natural part of our lives to fight, and it will be hard to control world leaders when they begin attacking other countries.
Another possible way for the United Nations to continue to be effective is to bring large nations together to support smaller nations who will be struggling financially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The United Nations General assembly is where all the nations of the world come together, and discuss options for the future. This resolution could bring countries closer together and help resolve other conflicts. (See previous paragraphThis option would work well if other countries were willing to donate, although it would be foolish to rely solely on this resolution because it is not foolproof.
The last possible resolution would be to cut down on unnecessary costs, and use the extra money to benefit the organization in other ways. Last year, the United Nations spent 490 million dollars on staff travel. The United Nations gives almost all staff business class seats, a policy that I think is inefficient. If the employees want to fly business class, they can pay out of their own money. The United Nations will save millions of dollars if they choose to fly all employees economy, and employees can pay more if they want to fly a higher class.
Out of these three resolutions, the third one would be most effective in cost, imminence, and labour required. Adopting this resolution would help the organization support countries in need, and the UN could encourage their other branches to adopt this as well. Although the other resolutions would not be as foolproof as the chosen one, I also think that the organization should look into both of these for more pluses and minuses. Doing this will be the best for the public because everyone has different ideas of what the United Nations should be doing. This Graph
Shows what the public currently think of the United Nations. I think that the amount favourable in most countries will rise if the UN adopts these resolutions. The United Nations is constantly looking to be better, and attempting to carry out new tasks will help them to change even more.
The United Nations will need to continue to change to suit the needs of the world. They can do this by studying new ways to save money, solve problems arising, and bring nations together. One way to save money is to cut down on the unnecessary costs, like business class flights for employees. However, the organization will have to look into the other resolutions to truly be beneficial overall. Norman Cousins put it best. “If the United Nations is to survive, those who represent it must bolster it; those who advocate it must submit to it; and those who believe in it must fight for it.” This is how the United Nations must continue to change to suit the needs of the world.
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