WHO spent £1million on lavish conference hosted by Putin - VIDEO

16:29 | 27.10.2014
WHO spent £1million on lavish conference hosted by Putin - VIDEO

WHO spent £1million on lavish conference hosted by Putin - VIDEO

 World Health Organisation spent £1million on a tobacco conference hosted by Vladimir Putin, while having to beg to secure funding to battle Ebola, it has been revealed today.

Delegates dined on caviar and drank champagne during a week-long Conference of the Parties in Moscow to discuss tobacco control and e-cigarettes.This comes after the organisation was criticised for failing to help countries in West Africa affected by the Ebola crisis.The conference for the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which is funded by the WHO was held for one week in Moscow, and attended by representatives from 175 countries.The conference was boycotted by the U.S. and Canada, who withdrew their participation after hearing that the conference would be hosted by the Russian President.Britain sent two delegates, which included David Black, the Department of Health's head of tobacco policy, who stayed in luxury hotels, including two five-star stays owned by the Russian government.Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, West Yorkshire, is set to question Parliament why Britain sent delegates to the lavish conference when the WHO lacks funding to stop Ebola.'It's quite worrying that, when we have an emerging Ebola crisis in the world WHO sees fit to waste money discussing tobacco controls,' Mr Davies told Sunday Express.The lavish menu, obtained by the Sunday Express, included red and flying fish caviar, three types of salmon and Vitello Tonnato beef, all washed down with champagne.When the WHO collaborated with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three countries most affected by Ebola, they were forced to plead for funding, and were saved by the World Bank, the newspaper writes.Earlier this month, the WHO was criticised by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) for their lack of action on the ground in battling Ebola.Mariano Lugli, deputy director of operations for MSF Switzerland, who treated Ebola victims in Guinea, said saw no sign of a WHO official in charge of handling the escalating outbreak.'In all the meetings I attended, even in Conakry [capital of Guinea], I never saw a representative of the WHO,' said Lugli.'The coordination role that WHO should be playing, we just didn't see it. I didn't see it the first three weeks and we didn't see it afterwards.'Some aid workers and U.N. officials blame a lack of WHO leadership in the emergency response, particularly in the early stages when it would have been easier to contain. On several occasions, WHO officials played down the outbreak, they say.MSF International President Joanne Liu, who warned that her organisation could not cope with the rising number of Ebola victims, has accused the WHO of failing its mandate to help member states cope with health emergencies.(dailymail.co.uk)Bakudaily.Az

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