WHO plans financial reforms

This is a late covering of the WHO reform...
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Posted: 05 November 2011

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation plans financial reforms as it seeks to cope with budget shortfalls amid the global economic crisis, an official said Friday.

Proposals include reducing the size of the UN agency's Geneva headquarters by sending some staff to work in less expensive areas, the WHO's director of strategy Daniel Lopez-Acuna told reporters.

The WHO's executive body said after an extraordinary session this week that the organisation was planning "ambitious reforms designed to build on the organisation's already strong foundations and better equip it to respond to public health challenges in the 21st century."

But Lopez-Acuna said not to expect a "big bang". Reforms at the 63-year-old organisation with a staff of nearly 8,500 around the world will be "a process that takes some time," he said.

In May, the WHO's 193 members adopted an austerity budget for 2012-2013 in the face of a deficit of some $300 million (215 million euros) in donor contributions prompted by the global crisis.

Some 300 headquarters staff will be axed, but further reforms are needed.

Resources will increasingly be transferred to in-country programmes, Lopez-Acuna said, and some activities could be shut down entirely depending on funding and priorities.

The executive council's statement Thursday following a three-day meeting said the body would meet again in January to examine ways to "better anticipate and be more flexible in its financing".

In the interim, it authorised the WHO leadership to take "immediate measures", the statement said, without elaborating.

- AFP/wk


Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
WHO plans financial reforms

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Workers, firms benefit from paid sick leave: study

Image by jungmoon via FlickrI didn't know this, or at least this is to say that there are some companies, perhaps small ones, that don't allow paid sick leave.

this study finds out that providing for workers a paid sick leave is beneficial.

Read on...
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS May 20, 2011, 11:06AM ET
By BRUCE SHIPKOWSKI
TRENTON, N.J.

Providing paid sick leave for all New Jersey workers would provide public health benefits as well as financial benefits for businesses, a study found.

Rutgers University's Center for Women and Work, which released the study findings on Thursday, found more than 1.2 million private sector workers in New Jersey don't get paid sick days.

If ailing workers know they can stay home and still be paid, they'll be able to get earlier and preventive health care and would be more likely to avoid costly visits to hospital emergency rooms, its authors concluded. They said that would reduce health care costs and allow workers to return to the job sooner.

"People without paid sick leave often have to choose between going to work sick and paying their bills. This highlights a disconnect between common sense measures that can aid public health and current policies," said Jonathan Heller of Human Impact Partners, a California-based organization focusing on health issues. "We must not only see (providing paid sick days) as good labor policy, but as good public health policy."

Proponents say they're not aware of any lawmakers who are planning to introduce such legislation, though they remain hopeful it will get more attention in the near future.

But the New Jersey Business and Industry Association says mandating paid sick leave would have a "serious, negative effect" on small businesses.

"Most large firms already provide it, so it really is a small business issue. And most small businesses either can't afford to do it or don't have enough people to cover shifts that need to be covered or perform duties that need to be done," associated President Phil Kirschner said. "Small companies also tend to be more flexible on these matters, so not providing paid sick days doesn't mean they don't accommodate employees when they're sick."

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Taken from businenessweek.com; source article is below:
Study: Workers, firms benefit from paid sick leave

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