Global perspective Human stories

Filter by:

Global

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He urged governments and corporate leaders to 'stay on the right side of history' on climate action.
United Nations/Stephane Dujarric

At Davos, Guterres slams backsliding on climate commitments

The world’s political and business elite present in Davos on Wednesday faced an uncompromising address from UN chief António Guterres as he rounded on a lack of multilateral collaboration in an “increasingly rudderless world” at risk from two existential dangers: climate change and unregulated Artificial Intelligence (AI).

A young girl suffering from acute malnutrition is transferred from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza to a field hospital in the south in April 2024. (file)
© WHO

What is the World Health Organization and why does it matter?

When the plague, cholera and yellow fever rippled deadly waves across a newly industrialised and interconnected world in the mid-19th century, taking a global approach to health became an imperative. Doctors, scientists, presidents and prime ministers urgently convened the International Sanitary Conference in Paris in 1851, a precursor to what is now the largest of its kind: the World Health Organization, known as WHO.