Postgraduate Workshop
Tuesday 1 May, 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Lilybank House, Ground Floor Seminar Room
The Genealogy of WHO and UNICEF
and the Intersecting Careers of
Melville Mackenzie (1889-1972) and Ludwik Rajchman (1881-1965)
David Macfadyen (Postgraduate Research Student, CHM)
The Workshop will begin with a 25-minute presentation on: what is known; what this
research has added to date; and a conclusion on the legacy for global health today.
A discussion will follow, including consideration of current interest in global health as
an academic discipline.
Abstract
This account of the evolution of global health is the first to be constructed around a family archive.
The narrative begins at the Treaty of Versailles and extends to the postwar establishment of the World
Health Organization (WHO) and the International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Global
health is viewed from the perspective of countries that hosted the presence of international staff. This
brings into focus persons who merit greater recognition. Ludwik Rajchman’s international career
began with the Epidemic Commission of the League of Nations, established in 1919; Melville
Mackenzie’s with the International Committee for Russian Relief, set up in 1921. These were stems
from which today's global health organizations evolved.
The functions and geographic reach of international health widened in the inter-war years through
initiatives by the League of Nations Health Organisation (LNHO), in which both Rajchman and
Mackenzie served. Rajchman is credited with establishing technical cooperation in China. Efforts
were also made to help develop national health services in Greece and Bolivia, initiatives in which
Mackenzie played a prominent part. Inter-personal relations within LNHO became strained, as
external political tensions increased during the 1930s. In 1937, responsibility for LNHO cooperation
with China passed to Mackenzie and, in 1939, Rajchman departed from LNHO. In 1943, Rajchman
advocated establishing a United Nations Health Service. His views were dismissed and he was
excluded from the creation of WHO. Mackenzie, in contrast, was given plenipotentiary powers.
Rajchman’s displaced energies went into the founding of UNICEF, which immediately launched
health programmes in countries around the globe. The newly established WHO was restricted, through
lack of funds, from engaging in the country-specific functions that LNHO had performed so
successfully. Priority was given to global functions that aim to benefit all countries. A recent UK
review stated that 'WHO needs to improve its strategic focus and delivery at country level'. The
imbalance between these two functions dates back to the early years of the Organization, and to its
antecedents.
Supervisors
Professor Marguerite Dupree, Professor of Social & Medical History and
Professor Lawrence Weaver, Emeritus Professor of Child Health
1108264m
dm8610875@googlemail.com
16 April, 2012