Foreign Affairs | May 24, 2012
Read the PublicationAfter 15 years of heralded progress on pandemic preparedness, tuberculosis control, tobacco regulation, and health metrics, the World Health Organization faces confusion over its future. In 2011, after a year-long consultation with member states, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan described the agency as overextended and unable to respond with speed and agility to today’s global health challenges. The most serious examples: the WHO’s inability to address noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention globally, to improve access to health systems, and to set global priorities in health.