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WHO’s to blame? The World Health Organization and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa

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  • Adam Kamradt-Scott

Abstract

Since 2001 the World Health Organization (WHO) has been actively promoting its credentials for managing ‘global health security’. However, the organisation’s initial response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has attracted significant criticism, even prompting calls for its dissolution and the creation of a new global health agency. Drawing on principal–agent theory and insights from previous disease outbreaks, this article examines what went wrong, the extent to which the organisation can be held to account, and what this means for the WHO’s global health security mandate.

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  • Adam Kamradt-Scott, 2016. "WHO’s to blame? The World Health Organization and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(3), pages 401-418, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:37:y:2016:i:3:p:401-418
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2015.1112232
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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Kaunert & Sarah Leonard & Ori Wertman, 2022. "Securitization of COVID-19 as a Security Norm: WHO Norm Entrepreneurship and Norm Cascading," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, June.
    2. Lange, Thomas & Villarreal, Pedro A. & Bärnighausen, Till, 2023. "Counter-contestation in global health governance: The WHO and its member states in emergency settings," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    3. Sharma, Rohit & Jain, Geetika & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Does the world need to change its vaccine distribution strategy for COVID-19?," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Christian Kaunert & Edwin Ezeokafor, 2022. "Ontological Securitization of Health in Africa: The HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19 Pandemics and the Foreign Virus," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, August.
    5. Lijo John & Anand Gurumurthy & Gunjan Soni & Vipul Jain, 2019. "Modelling the inter-relationship between factors affecting coordination in a humanitarian supply chain: a case of Chennai flood relief," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 1227-1258, December.
    6. Helena Barnard & Kenneth Amaeshi & Paul M. Vaaler, 2023. "Theorizing international business in Africa: A roadmap," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(4), pages 389-407, December.
    7. Richard Oloruntoba & Gazi Farid Hossain & Beverly Wagner, 2019. "Theory in humanitarian operations research," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 283(1), pages 543-560, December.

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