CERGAS Webinar "The World Organization, governance, geopolitics and the pandemic challenge"

The Covid19 pandemic has been also the arena of geopolitic confrontation. In 2020, the Trump administration decided to abandon the WHO just as the agency was facing the biggest health crisis in its history, which is still ongoing. The frontal accusation against the WHO of covering up the opaque management of the epidemic by China, the source of the virus, reveals how easy it is for the agency to become the scapegoat in a geo-political conflict between countries, in this case two world powers. This is not the first time that the WHO has come under fire. On other epidemic occasions it has acted with uncertainty, sometimes wrongly. But the quality of its work depends very much on the quality of the action of Member States. In order to evaluate its decisions, it is necessary to retrace its history, understand its mandate, its funding mechanisms and the tensions that run through its management. The seminar aims at shedding some light on how the WHO works, the external influences to which it is exposed, and the responsibilities of the various 'stakeholders'. Pandemics, Covid-19 is neither the first nor will be the last of global challenges faced by the Organisation. The promotion and protection of the right to health for all is an objective that requires an authoritative and credible WHO. How WHO can recover its fundamental mandate and role as "the directing and coordinating authority" in global health is still open to discussion.

Speaker Eduardo Missoni, Università Bocconi, Link bio

Link zoom:
https://zoom.us/j/95736213744?pwd=MGlHN01OUjJ4NVhUcjVvNDJJSithdz09
Meeting ID: 957 3621 3744, Passcode: 577099