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Unlock This CourseThe United Nations (UN) was set up in 1945 to keep peace. Its founders believed that peace also needed food, health, education and fair treatment for children. Hungry, sick and poorly educated people were more likely to suffer in wars, and more likely to end up in them. So the UN created, or took over, a set of specialised agencies. Each one had its own staff, its own budget and its own job.
Key terms:
The World Health Organisation began work in April 1948, based in Geneva. Its aim was the best possible health for all peoples. It helped governments to fight diseases that spread across borders, such as malaria and tuberculosis, and to improve care for mothers and babies.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation was founded in October 1945 at a conference in Quebec. Its first Director-General was Sir John Boyd Orr, and its headquarters later moved to Rome. Its aim was to raise nutrition levels and help farmers produce more food.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation was based in Paris and began formally in November 1946. It worked on education, science and culture. Its constitution says: "Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed."
The UN's Children's Fund was created by the General Assembly in December 1946. It was first called the International Children's Emergency Fund, and its job was to help children in countries wrecked by the Second World War. It paid for food, milk and clothing and was paid for by voluntary gifts from governments and the public.
WHO took on diseases that no single country could beat alone. In 1955 it launched a worldwide programme to wipe out malaria, using insect-killing sprays and medicine. The programme did not succeed everywhere, but it brought health teams and supplies to many poor countries.
FAO collected information on food and farming, advised governments on crops and fishing, and tried to spread better farming methods. In 1960 it began its Freedom from Hunger Campaign to draw the world's attention to hunger.
UNESCO helped to rebuild schools and libraries after the war and worked to teach more people to read and write. In 1960 it began a campaign to save ancient temples in Nubia, in Egypt and Sudan, from flooding when the Aswan High Dam was built. Countries around the world gave money and skills to move the monuments.
UNICEF began with emergency feeding in Europe. In 1953 the General Assembly made it a permanent part of the UN. It dropped the word "Emergency" from its name but kept the short name UNICEF. From then on it worked in poorer countries, for example on vaccination and clean water.
These agencies had no armies and no power to force anyone. They worked by giving advice, supplies and money. They usually succeeded where governments wanted help, and struggled where governments did not.
None of this was brand new. The League of Nations had done similar work in the 1920s and 1930s, and the UN learned from it.
Explain two ways in which the work of the UN's agencies in the years 1945-55 was similar to the work of the League of Nations' agencies in the 1920s. [6 marks]
(Reminder: in the 1920s the League's health work fought epidemics, and its Refugee Committee, led by Fridtjof Nansen, helped people made homeless by war.)
One similarity is that both groups of agencies tackled disease. In 1920 the League's Epidemic Commission helped to fight typhus in eastern Europe, and in the same way the WHO, from 1948, helped governments to fight diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Both saw health as a problem that crossed borders and needed international co-operation.
A second similarity is that both had no power to force countries to act. The League's Refugee Committee under Nansen could only appeal to governments to take in refugees, and UNICEF in 1946 likewise relied on voluntary gifts from governments to feed children in war-damaged countries. Both therefore depended on governments being willing to help.
This reaches the top level because each way says something specific about both the League's agencies and the UN's agencies.
Each way needs a fact about the League's agencies AND a fact about the UN's agencies. One way alone scores at most 3 of the 6 marks.