The World Health Organization (WHO) is the body of the United Nations (UN) responsible for directing and coordinating health. As such WHO has come to play a vital role as an actor in the field of international public health and international public health policy. Since its inception in 1947 WHO has been at the forefront of many breakthroughs in the field including, most notably, what has come to be described as one of the greatest humanitarian achievements of the 20th century, the elimination of Smallpox in 1979. However WHO’s inability to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa has cast doubt on its effectiveness. Though much of the media attention given to WHO concentrates on its role in controlling and ultimately eliminating infectious disease, WHO’s mandate is far broader. The details of WHO’s mandate will be examined in detail throughout this paper but put simply this mandate is to ensure the attainment of the highest possible level of all forms of health by all human beings. This paper will focus on the area of maternal health. Maternal health is an important indicator, alongside life expectancy, of development. This is reflected by the inclusion of maternal health in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) however the area of maternal health is often ignored by international relations (IR) scholars who tend to focus analysis of WHO on its role in dealing with infectious disease. This focus on infectious disease by IR scholars is understandable in light of globalization. Due to globalization and the related transport revolution of the 20th century it is now possible for infectious diseases to spread around the globe in a matter of days. The threat of infectious disease brings with it a number of traditional, hard security issues that put bluntly other health issues do not. However in light of the development of the human security paradigm from the late 1990s onwards it is now becoming increasingly apparent that IR scholars will need to expand their examination of the ways in which WHO functions beyond the realm of infectious disease.
This paper will examine the ways in which WHO functions in relation to maternal health. It will do this by first examining the history, structure and functions of WHO and the role that the MDGs have come to play in influencing WHO’s operations. The paper will then focus on maternal health as a concept before detailing what role WHO plays in the field of maternal heath at an international, regional and national level. The final section of the paper will critique WHO’s functioning in the area of maternal health with a focus on WHO’s operations at the international level. The paper will conclude by asking if it is fair or even possible to pass judgement on the functioning of an organization as complex and multifaceted as WHO by focusing on only one, narrow section of its overall mandate.