Lecturers: Orsolya Varga (VO) varga.orsolya@med.unideb.hu, Mihály Kökény, Lecturer, Inst. of Public Health and Epidemiology, Former Minister for Health, Former Chair of the Executive Board of WHO (KM), Imre Holló, Director, Planning, Resource Coordination, Performance Monitoring and Grants Management (HI), Zsuzsanna Jakab, Former Deputy Director General of WHO (JZ), Haris Harjulahovic, WHO Representative, Hungary (HH)
Language: English
Program
· 4 May 2026 (Monday): 18.00 - 20.00: WHO as a specialised agency of the United Nations. Its constitution and functions. WHO's organisational structure: global, regional, country offices. Milestones in the history of WHO (KM) TEOK 0-107
· 5 May 2026 (Tuesday): 18.00 - 19.00: Country work of WHO, collaboration with Hungary (HH). 19.00- 20.00: WHO's response to the NCD epidemic: FCTC, UN summits (VO) TEOK 1-101
· 6 May 2026 (Wednesday): 18.00 – 19.00: Financing WHO (HI). 19.00 - 20.00: Adapting to global challenges: climate change, inequalities, etc. (VO) TEOK 1-101
· 7 May (Thursday): 18.00 -19.00: Coping with the health determinants. How has WHO become political? 19.00 - 20.00: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic (KM) TEOK 1-101
· 8 May 2026 (Friday): 18.00- 19.15. The future of WHO (JZ). 19.15: Written closing test. TEOK 0-107
Further readings: • Homepage of WHO: https://www.who.int/en/
• A Guide to Global Health Diplomacy (2021) by Ilona Kickbusch, Haik Nikogosian, Michel Kazatchkine, Mihály Kökény, The Graduate Institute, Geneva, Switzerland: https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/sites/internet/files/2021-02/GHC-Guide.pdf
• Governing pandemics. The site of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute offers a one-stop information source on issues that have been identified as requiring reform, and on the proposed pandemic treaty: https://www.governingpandemics.org/
• Alderslade R, Kökény M, A. The health of the public: What has gone wrong? (Review article). SEEJPH 2020, posted: 7 December 2020: https://www.seejph.com/index.php/seejph/article/view/3996/3933
• Kickbusch, I.: US exit from WHO: it is about much more than WHO. The Lancet, 8 February 2025: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00163-1/fulltext
• Sharma, M. et al.: Future Issues in Global Health: Challenges and Conundrums, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2025, 22(3), 325; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22030325 • Webpage of Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/
• Five years to go: Are we on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goals? World Economic Forum (2025): https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/09/sdg-progress-report-2025/
• Akhavein, D. et al.: Health security—Why is ‘public health’ not enough? Global Health Research and Policy, 10, 1 (2025): https://doi.org/10.1186/s41256-024-00394-7
• Learn COVID pandemic lessons — before it’s too late. Editorial. Nature, 18 February 2025: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00498-1
• Shehzad, A. et al.: Where did public health go wrong? Seven lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Public Health, Volume 34, Issue 4, August 2024, Pages 618–619, https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckae042
- Teacher: Diaz Benavides Daniela Alejandra
- Teacher: Mahrouseh Nour
- Teacher: Varga Orsolya Edit
