Research Paper on UN

UN Leadership in Global Health: A Critical Evaluation of Partnerships and Policies Through the Christian Worldview Your Name Subject and Section Professor’s Name Date Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..3 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………4 Background……………………………………………………………………………4 The UN Politics as Manipulated by the Great Powers………………………………..4 Global Health Governance…………………………………………………………….5 UN’s Partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation………………………6 Analyzing Global Health Governance Through the Christian Worldview……………7 Pressing Concerns and Questions……………………………………………………..8 Empirical Evidence…………………………………………………………………....8 Reforms in the Global Health Structures for Equitable Access to Health…………….8 The Roles of the Non-State Actors…………………………………………………….9 Addressing the Social Determinants of Health……………………………………….10 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….11 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………..13 Abstract This research paper aims to determine how Christian ethical principles can be used in the interaction between the United Nations (UN), non-governmental organizations, and superpowers to achieve better global health governance as well as good management of international health emergencies. It demonstrates that powerful countries have turned the UN into an arena for political contestation while highlighting the role played by the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partnership. This study seeks to understand "How do Christian ethical principles shape interactions between the UN, non-state actors, and global powers for effective global health governance?" Moral values can help combat political biases and promote collaborative endeavors within worldwide healthcare. Introduction The UN remains the central institution of global cooperation focused on solving international issues. However, its operations are often influenced by great powers that politicize its functions, thus making the UN less efficient and biased. This research paper aims to analyze how great powers politicize the UN and explain a successful partnership of two actors in advancing globalization health governance. This paper seeks to answer the research question, " How can Christian ethical principles inform the interactions between the UN, non-state actors, and global powers to enhance the efficacy of global health governance and the management of international health crises?” Background The UN was founded in 1945 to maintain peaceful conditions in the world and protect human rights, social welfare, and economic betterment. Despite its noble objectives, the organization has often been a battleground for the political interests of great powers, notably the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China. These powers have substantial control over the UN and put the organization in a position where it pursues interests that represent their respective nations’ agenda and not the global good of people (Karns et al., 2015, p. 112). The UN Politics as Manipulated by the Great Powers Despite being an international organization, major world powers have a history of politicizing the UN in their geopolitical self-interests. This influence is most apparent in the Security Council, where the veto power permits the permanent members to prevent resolutions that are unfavorable to their preference. For example, there was the Syrian conflict where Russia and China could veto any resolution on the matter, and the US could veto an unfavorable resolution on Israel (Karns et al., 2015, p. 115). This politicization stagnates the organization's ability to make a clear-cut response or even intervention without bias, resulting in passive attitudes toward humanitarian issues. The role of elected members (E10) in the Security Council reveals that the power of the permanent members (P5) present in the Council needs to be improved. The E10 comprises members elected to represent all existing UN member states; however, given the structural and procedural realities that enhance the role of the P5 in the Council, the E10 can only exert marginal influence (Nick et al., 2021, p.5). In addition, continuity and experience provide the P5 with significant advantages over the rest of the members of the E10 because the P5 members are in office and have official memories regarding the financial situation of the organization all the time, while most members of the E10 are in office for only two years. This continuity enables the P5 to go around the Council procedures well and retain power in the most critical aspects. Current attempts to work on the overhaul of the working system of the Council, together with the increasing presence of the E10, still pay obeisance to the P5 hegemony regarding UN decisions (Nick Pay & Postolski, 2021, p.7). Global Health Governance Global health governance can be defined as the collaborative approach of institutions and players on the international level aiming to interlace health challenges that have a cross-border nature. Each of these requires competent governance, or management, of world health, especially in its relationship to pandemics sweeping across borders and worldwide health and medical systems. The cooperation between the UN and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a prime example of how successful partnerships contribute to improving the effectiveness of global health governance institutions by developing innovative solutions and increasing resource gathering and utilization. The emergence of COVID-19 has emphasized the necessity of strengthening global health governance. As notably observed by Gostin et al. (2020), no nation can adequately singlehandedly counter the health hazards in a rapidly connected world. The pandemic has shown divisions in the global healthcare structure, as intergovernmental organizations experience problems from nationalist governments in dealing with a common enemy. Global health has been a common interest of the UN and WHO, which has worked to attain cooperation and effective collaboration among different nations under an international framework; however, international relations have played a significant role in undermining the achievement of these goals for various reasons such as political rivalry and structural barriers (p. 1615). Over the past twenty years, the UN system has substantially stepped up its engagement for global health; it has convened, for example, high-level special sessions on infectious and non-communicable diseases and has set up frameworks for the social and economic consequences of pandemics (Gostin et al., 2020, p. 1615). However, COVID-19 has signaled that global health institutions and governance must be further developed. WHO is the leading international health organization, with crucial accountability for supervising interventional actions globally. The IHR outlines the national measures for action to prevent and control disease outbreaks...