AN ASSESSMENT OF THE ROLE OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (WHO) IN GLOBAL HEALTH GOVERNANCE: A CASE ON THE EBOLA AND COVID-19 OUTBREAK IN SIERRA LEONE

Abstract

This study investigates the role of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in global health governance with a case study on the Ebola and Covid-19 outbreak in Sierra Leone. Two specific sampling techniques were used to get respondents from whom information was elicited: simple random and purposive. A total of seventy (70) respondents, including medical doctors, nurses, civil societies, WHO representatives, health experts, and ordinary Sierra Leoneans, are aware of health issues. Ebola and COVID-19 are challenges in Africa and have caused health issues and adverse effects on the global health problem. The result reveals the need that has been identified and, however, made it clear that the responsibility to ensure the right to health for all lies not only with states as their obligations to their own people as required by their national constitutions and the principles of sovereignty among other policies but also with the international community as a critical partner considering the implications of health issues such as infectious diseases may have in a global village. Among many other impacts of the decade conflict was the devastating effect on the health sector. On the one hand, the war did not only stop at destroying health facilities that had already been prepared but also had to force health workers in their search for a safe heaven to flee these villages in their aggressive search for big towns and could not return any longer knowing the implications of their decision to go back in terms of service delivery and other socio-economic opportunities they face in these big cities. However, committed medical doctors had to flee the country to other places in America and Europe. Some did so because of the deplorable condition of the health sector, and others because of security. Even after the war, the majority of these doctors who left could not come back, even those who had left on grounds of scholarship. The MoHS is expected to provide leadership and coordinate the efforts of all healthcare providers and financiers at all levels, irrespective of their level of involvement. Yet, the MoHS is left with no option but to commit the few qualified and competent medical doctors to the issues of citizens’ health. It was evident that succeeding governments could not prioritise health issues in the reconstruction process. In the middle of this deplorable health situation came the outbreak in 2014 that, within a short period, negatively impacted the health systems in all three countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea). Many Sierra Leoneans expected an immediate intervention by the international community on the basis that the immediate involvement with a more responsive and holistic approach by the international community through global health governance initiatives would have stopped the spread at an initial stage. Nevertheless, this was not the case, rather it was only after the death toll rose to a certain amount and other nationals contracted the disease it became a matter of global concern, thereby promoting the late response that was made. The aim of examining the structures put in place by WHO in its global health governance initiative is not only to end the spread of the virus but also to prevent future outbreaks, assessing the impact created by such a structure during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone; highlighting the challenges faced by WHO in its initiative in ending the outbreak and preventing its spread to other countries considering the obligation owes by the international community in protecting other states from such life-threatening epidemics and finally suggesting ways that will further improve WHO in its Global health governance and its intervention into the health crisis of states in cases of outbreaks like the Ebola Virus Disease but the late response by Global Health Partners also causes the emergence and high effect of Covid-19 in Sierra Leone.

JEL: I18, F53, H51, O15, J18, N47, P16

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