- Organisation profiles

WHO - World Health Organization

Organisation name

World Health Organisation

Full contact details

[Headquarters]
World Health Organisation
Avenue Appia 20
1211 Geneva 27, Switzerland
Telephone: (+ 41 22) 791 21 11
Facsimile (fax): (+ 41 22) 791 3111
Web page: www.who.int/indoorair

Main contact person

Ms Eva Rehfuess
Department of Protection of the Human Environment

Email: rehfuesse@...

Background, mission and goals

The World Health Organisation is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

WHO is governed by 192 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO's Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO programme and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions.

Approach, organisational programmes and activities

Headquarters

The majority of work carried out by WHO headquarters in the field of household energy and health is led by two departments:

Protection of the Human Environment: has developed a programme of work on household energy, indoor air pollution and health, structured around:

Research and evaluation
Capacity building
Evidence for policy makers

More information is available through the following web page: http://www.who.int/indoorair/en/

Child and Adolescent Health and Development: has supported development studies in health impacts of household energy, particularly acute lower respiratory infections. For more information, see: http://www.who.int/child-adolescent-health/

Regional

The regional structure of WHO means that these offices develop a wide range of regionally relevant programmes, and some have promoted work on household energy and health. The Africa Office has programmes of work on Health and Sustainable Development, and on Protection of the Human Environment, which recognise links between poverty, energy, indoor air pollution, health and economic development. For more information, see: http://www.afro.who.int/

Examples of past successes and experience

The department of protection of the Human Environment is an Associate of Sparknet (Ms Eva Rehfuess), an active member of the Partnership for Clean Indoor air, and is active in advocacy, capacity building for the evaluation of household energy and health work, and developing evidence for policy making including methods for cost-benefit analysis.
The department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development has contributed funding to a range of studies, including the impact of electrification on IAP exposure in rural South Africa, and funding and technical expertise for a randomised trial on the impact of reducing indoor air pollution on childhood ALRI in rural Guatemala.

Overall institutional structure

WHO has its head quarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with seven regional offices. For more information, see: http://www.who.int/about/en/

Other details

Although WHO does provide funding, this would normally be through technical service agreements to assist the organisation in carrying out work that is part of its agreed work programme.