Comparative Health Systems: Global Perspectives
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WHO is the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations system. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.
World Health Organization
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after the Second World War by 51 countries committed to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights. Due to its unique international character, and the powers vested in its founding Charter, the Organization can take action on a wide range of issues, and provide a forum for its 192 Member States to express their views, through the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council and other bodies and committees. The work of the United Nations reaches every corner of the globe. Although best known for peacekeeping, peacebuilding, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance, there are many other ways the United Nations and its System (specialized agencies, funds and programmes) affect our lives and make the world a better place. The Organization works on a broad range of fundamental issues, from sustainable development, environment and refugees protection, disaster relief, counter terrorism, disarmament and non-proliferation, to promoting democracy, human rights, governance, economic and social development and international health, clearing landmines, expanding food production, and more, in order to achieve its goals and coordinate efforts for a safer world for this and future generations.
United Nations
UNICEF has always worked in emergencies, both natural and man-made. Originally called the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund, the organisation was created to provide humanitarian assistance to children living in a world shattered by the Second World War. Much has changed since then, but UNICEF's fundamental mission has not. Though emergencies grow increasingly complex, their impacts ever more devastating, UNICEF remains dedicated to providing life-saving assistance to children affected by disasters, and to protecting their rights in any circumstances, no matter how difficult. In health and nutrition, water and sanitation, protection, education and HIV/AIDS, UNICEF's Core Corporate Commitments to Children in Emergencies are more than a mission statement - they are a humanitarian imperative.
United Nations, United Nations Children's Emergency Fund
ECOSOC was established under the United Nations Charter as the principal organ to coordinate economic, social, and related work of the 14 UN specialized agencies, functional commissions and five regional commissions. The Council also receives reports from 11 UN funds and programmes. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) serves as the central forum for discussing international economic and social issues, and for formulating policy recommendations addressed to Member States and the United Nations system. It is responsible for: promoting higher standards of living, full employment, and economic and social progress; identifying solutions to international economic, social and health problems; facilitating international cultural and educational cooperation; and encouraging universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It has the power to make or initiate studies and reports on these issues. It also has the power to assist the preparations and organization of major international conferences in the economic and social and related fields and to facilitate a coordinated follow-up to these conferences. With its broad mandate the Council's purview extends to over 70% of the human and financial resources of the entire UN system.
United Nations, Economic and Social Council
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in a third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people.
United Nations, High Commissioner for Refugees
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) represents the world's commitment to universal ideals of human dignity. We have a unique mandate from the international community to promote and protect all human rights.
United Nations, High Commissioner for Human Rights
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable.
Commonwealth Fund
A leader in health policy and communications, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a non-profit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the U.S., as well as the U.S. role in global health policy. Unlike grant-making foundations, Kaiser develops and runs its own research and communications programs, sometimes in partnership with other non-profit research organizations or major media companies.

We serve as a non-partisan source of facts, information, and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the public. Our product is information, always provided free of charge - from the most sophisticated policy research, to basic facts and numbers, to information young people can use to improve their health or elderly people can use to understand their Medicare benefits.
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Our belief that every life has equal value is at the core of our work at the foundation. We follow 15 guiding principles, which help define our approach to our philanthropic work, and employ an outstanding leadership team to direct our strategies and grantmaking.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 by breakfast cereal pioneer W.K. Kellogg. During his lifetime, he donated $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments "to help people help themselves."

The Foundation receives its income primarily from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust, which was set up by Mr. Kellogg. The Trust continues to own substantial equity in Kellogg Company, in addition to its diversified portfolio. While Kellogg Company and the Kellogg Foundation have enjoyed a long-standing relationship, the Foundation is governed by its own independent Board of Trustees. The Foundation receives its income primarily from the Trust's investments.

Over the years, the Kellogg Foundation's programming has evolved, striving to remain innovative and responsive to the ever-changing needs of society. Today, the organization ranks among the world's largest private foundations. Grants are awarded in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and southern Africa.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation seeks to improve the health and health care of all Americans. Our efforts focus on improving both the health of everyone in America and their health care--how it's delivered, how it's paid for, and how well it does for patients and their families. We are guided by a fundamental premise: we are stewards of private funds that must be used in the public's interest. Our greatest asset isn't our endowment; it's the way we help create leverage for change.

We create leverage by building evidence and producing, synthesizing and distributing knowledge, new ideas and expertise. We harness the power of partnerships by bringing together key players, collaborating with colleagues, and securing the sustained commitment of other funders and advocates to improve the health and health care of all Americans.

To ensure that our programs are effective, we developed a framework to organize our grantmaking practices and areas of focus.

This framework recognizes that we do several different kinds of grantmaking and that improving the ways these grants work together can enhance the measurable progress we make toward our overall mission. The framework groups most of our grantmaking into four clusters we call portfolios--Human Capital, Vulnerable Populations, Pioneer and Targeted. Within the Targeted portfolio, we have chosen a group of critical issues to address--Childhood Obesity, Coverage, Public Health and Quality/Equality--by setting specific time-limited objectives, benchmarks, a plan of action, and a budget to accomplish the objective.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Doctors Without Borders/Médicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971.

Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. MSF reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.
Médicins Sans Frontieres
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 186 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
International Monetary Fund
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the common sense. We are made up of two unique development institutions owned by 186 member countries--the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).

Each institution plays a different but collaborative role to advance the vision of an inclusive and sustainable globalization. The IBRD focuses on middle income and creditworthy poor countries, while IDA focuses on the poorest countries in the world. Together we provide low-interest loans, interest-free credits and grants to developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management.
World Bank
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the international organization whose primary purpose is to open trade for the benefit of all.

The WTO provides a forum for negotiating agreements aimed at reducing obstacles to international trade and ensuring a level playing field for all, thus contributing to economic growth and development. The WTO also provides a legal and institutional framework for the implementation and monitoring of these agreements, as well as for settling disputes arising from their interpretation and application. The current body of trade agreements comprising the WTO consists of 16 different multilateral agreements (to which all WTO members are parties) and two different plurilateral agreements (to which only some WTO members are parties).

Over the past 60 years, the WTO, which was established in 1995, and its predecessor organization the GATT have helped create a strong and prosperous international trading system, thereby contributing to unprecedented global economic growth. The WTO currently has 153 members, of which 117 are developing countries or separate customs territories.
World Trade Organization
The International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) mission is the protect and assist the civilian and military victims of armed conflicts and internal disturbances on a strictly neutral and impartial basis.

Its tasks include: visits to prisoners of war and civilian detainees; searching for missing persons; transmission of messages between family members separated by conflict;reunification of dispersed families;provision of food, water, and medical assistance to civilians without access to these basic necessities; spreading knowledge of humanitarian law; monitoring compliance with that low; drawing attention to violations, and contributing to the development of humanitarian law.
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is the world's largest humanitarian organization, providing assistance without discrimination as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinion.

Founded in 1919, the International Federation comprises 186 member Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, a Secretariat in Geneva and more than 60 delegations strategically located to support activities around the world.

Our mission is to improve the lives of vulnerable people by mobilizing the power of humanity. Vulnerable people are those who are at greatest risk from situations that threaten their survival, or their capacity to live with an acceptable level of social and economic security and human dignity. Often, these are victims of natural disasters, poverty brought about by socioeconomic crises, refugees, and victims of health emergencies.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical arm of the universal Christian Church.

Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

International Health Services
For almost as long as The Salvation Army has existed, it has operated hospitals and clinics in some of the most needy areas of the world. That remains true today.

The Salvation Army's medical services are most effective, influential and sustainable when they link to health-related community development, which gives local people--Salvationists and others--the opportunity to participate.

In addition to church-based programs, The Salvation Army currently has 183 health programs in 39 countries, focusing on healthcare and the prevention of disease. These include 23 general hospitals and more than 150 clinics and health posts. Almost all of these include a response to HIV/AIDS. At a conservative estimate, between seven and eight million people are specifically involved in community development responses. These care, support and prevention programs are charactrerized by local community ownership.
The Salvation Army
Oxfam International was formed in 1995 by a group of independent nongovernmental organizations. Their aim was to work together for greater impact on the international stage ot reduce poverty and injustice.

The name "Oxfam" comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942. The group campaigned for food supplies to be sent through an allied naval blockage to starving women and children in enemy-occupied Greece during the Second World War.

As well as becoming a world leader in the delivery of emergency relief, Oxfam International implements long-term development programs in vulnerable communities. We are also part of a global movement, campaigning with others, for instance, to end unfair trade rules, demand better health and education services for all, and to combat climate change.
Oxfam International
CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. We place special focus on working alongside poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty. Women are at the heart of CARE's community-based efforts to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources. CARE also delivers emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters, and helps people rebuild their lives.
CARE
The Organization of American States (OAS) brings together the nations of the Western Hemisphere to strengthen cooperation on democratic values, defend common interests and debate the major issues facing the region and the world. The OAS is the region's principal multilateral forum for strengthening democracy, promoting human rights, and confronting shared problems such as poverty, terrorism, illegal drugs, and corruption. It plays a leading role in carrying out mandates established by the hemisphere's leaders through the Summits of the Americas.
Organization of American States
The AU is Africa's premier institution and principal organization for the promotion of accelerated socio-economic integration of the continent, which will lead to greater unity and solidarity between African countries and peoples. The AU is based on the common vision of a united and strong Africa and on the need to build a partnership between governments and all segments of civil society, in particular women, youth and the private sector, in order to strengthen solidarity and cohesion amongst the peoples of Africa.As a continental organization it focuses on the promotion of peace, security and stability on the continent as a prerequisite for the implementation of the development and integration agenda of the Union.
The African Union (AU)
Department of State
Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Pan American Health Organization
Population Action International
International Association of National Public Health Institutes
Global Forum for Health Research
GAVI ALLIANCE
Government of Canada
Government of the United Kingdom
Government of the Republic of Ireland
Government of Portugal
Government of Germany
Government of Russia
Government of Australia
(Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare)
Government of Japan
Government of Korea
Government of India
Government of Jordan
(Ministry of Health)
Government of Turkey
(Ministry of Public Health - French)
Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo
(Ministry of Health)
Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Government of the Republic of Ghana
Ministry of Health - Spanish
Government of the Republic of Mexico
Government of Saint Lucia
British Broadcasting Company
National Public Radio
Link: Jones and Bartlett Publishers