First - Introduction to Dr. German Velasquez...
"Dr Germán Velásquez is Special Adviser for Health and Development at the South Centre, Geneva. Dr. Velásquez holds a degree in Philosophy and Humanities, and a Master’s in Economics and a PhD in Health Economics from the Sorbonne University, Paris. In 2010 he received a PHD Honoris Causa on Public Health from the University of Caldas, Colombia.
Until May 2010, he was Director of the World Health Organization –WHO- Secretariat on PublicHealth, Innovation and Intellectual Property, at the Director General Office, in Geneva. He is a pioneer on the debate on health, IP and acces to medicines and he represented WHO at the WTO Council for TRIPS from 2001 to 2010."
http://www.snis.ch/content/german-velasquez
This is what Dr. Velasquez has to say about the current situation at the World Health Organization... (From an article written by Miquel Jara; translated from Spanish; source below)
"Both the WHO Secretariat, as member countries as observers in which I include myself, we should have the honesty to admit that we have failed ... we have prostituted the Organization which have sold and deceived and because of us, we are witnessing the sinking of the Public, multilateral reference agency for health affairs on the planet.
Faced with failure in the management of the Organization, the current Director General, Margaret Chan, should have resigned from office.
Never [in] 65 years of existence of the institution, [has] a director general and its secretariat submitted to member countries, key documents, which have been rejected by members three to four times for three or four consecutive years. "
Colombia's concerns related to the reform of WHO documents, the role of non-state actors, on the finances of the organization or on matters related to the quality or property of drugs.
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Dr. Velasquez "argues that avian flu, H1N1 (or swine flu), Ebola and now confused zika the current CEO and countries no longer know whether the organization should be normative or humanitarian action or both. The first and most serious problem of the organization is the progressive loss of control dizzying mandatory public's regular budget.
It is taking place a progressive privatization of the agency, which in eight years has grown from a budget of 50% of public funds constituted by mandatory contributions from member countries, only 18%.
The agency is currently in the hands (approximately 82% of its budget) philanthropic foundations such as Bill and Melinda Gates, a small number of industrialized countries that offer some voluntary contributions and the pharmaceutical industry."
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