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Coronavirus CSS Blog

WHO Funding

This graphic outlines the World Health Organization’s funding by donor groups, as well as assessed and voluntary contributions. Countries are still the most important sources of funding, contributing almost 60 per cent of the agency’s budget. Its dependency on voluntary donations makes it particularly difficult for the WHO to put its donors under too much pressure.

For more on the WHO’s alleged pro-China bias during the coronavirus pandemic, read Jan Thiel’s CSS Analysis in Security Policy here.

Addressing the Coronavirus Infodemic

Image courtesy of Tim Dennell/Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

This article was originally published by the Atlantic Council on 16 March 2020.

As the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread around the globe, the World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined a different type of outbreak to be concerned about. As information on the virus deluges traditional and social media, the WHO warns that societies around the world are facing an “infodemic”—an “overabundance” of information that makes it difficult for people to identify truthful and trustworthy sources from false or misleading ones.

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CSS Blog

WHO Decision Instrument for the Assessment of Events

This graphic maps the World Health Organization’s decision instrument for the assessment and notification of events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern. For more on how the WHO’s international health regulations aim to contain outbreaks in the early stages, see Ursula Jasper’s recent CSS analysis here. For more graphics on international organizations, check out the CSS’ collection of graphs and charts on the subject here.

Ten Elections to Watch in 2017

Vote
Courtesy of las.photographs/Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on 9 December 2016.

Millions of people around the world went to the polls this year. The results provided plenty of surprises. British voters defied the pollsters and voted to leave the European Union. Colombians did much the same in rejecting their government’s peace deal with FARC, though Colombia’s president found a way to complete the deal a few months later without a vote. The biggest electoral surprise of all might have been in the United States, where Donald Trump defied the political experts and defeated Hillary Clinton. Perhaps 2017 will produce similarly surprising results. Here are ten elections to watch.

Back to the Future of Global Health Security

Abstract picture of a computer virus
Abstract Picture of a computer virus / courtesy of Yuri Samoilov/flickr

This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on 31 May 2016.

Growing populations, rising global temperatures, urbanization, and easier trade and travel are all changing the world in ways conducive to the spread of infectious disease. The recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks have dominated news headlines and their toll has been terrible, but a more lethal infectious disease could do far worse harm.

“For infectious diseases, you cannot trust the past when planning for the future,” warned Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly last week in Geneva. “What we are seeing,” she said, is “a dramatic resurgence of the threat from emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The world is not prepared to cope.”