In late summer of 2018, I spent a few days in Geneva. I was working at the archives of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for a book and was staying with a friend whom I had known for well over a decade. He had joined the WHO recently. One evening, over dinner, we ended up talking about the problems at the WHO. I could see that he was deeply frustrated by the stifling bureaucracy and inherent inefficiencies in the system. As he put it, it was an organisation that continued to significantly underperform despite having extraordinary scientists, physicians and public health practitioners in its ranks.

While I had never formally worked at the WHO, I knew what he was talking about. The bureaucratic inefficiency and mind-numbing paperwork is among the first things a lot of people note when they engage with the UN. So I pushed my friend about why he thought the organisation was inefficient. I also said, "If people outside see it, and if people inside know it, then why doesn't it change?"

My........

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