TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Sept06/01)

12 September 2006

ELECTIONS FOR A NEW WHO DIRECTOR GENERAL

Please find below a selection of the latest news stories on the election process of a new Director General for the World health Organisation.

Best Wishes
Sangeeta S.
Third World Network

http://www.who.int/governance/election/en/index.html

CANDIDATES FOR THE POST OF DIRECTOR-GENERAL

The list of names, in English alphabetical order, and titles of the persons proposed by Member States for nomination by the Executive Board for the post of Director-General is as follows. The Board will meet from 6 to 8 November 2006.

Dr Kazem Behbehani (proposed by Kuwait)

Dr Margaret Chan (proposed by China)

Dr Julio Frenk (proposed by Mexico)

Mr David A. Gunnarsson (proposed by Iceland)

Dr Nay Htun (proposed by Myanmar)

Dr Karam Karam (proposed by Syrian Arab Republic)

Dr Bernard Kouchner (proposed by France)

Dr Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi (proposed by Mozambique)

Dr Shigeru Omi (proposed by Japan)

Dr Alfredo Palacio González (proposed by Ecuador)

Professor Pekka Puska (proposed by Finland)

Ms Elena Salgado Méndez (proposed by Spain)

RIVALS LINE UP TO LEAD DRIVE FOR BETTER HEALTH

By Andrew Jack in London, Frances Williams in Geneva

and Tom Mitchell in Hong Kong

Published: September 7 2006 03:00 | Last updated: September 7 2006 03:00

The race to lead the World Health Organisation for the next five years kicked off on Wednesday with publication of the list of 13 candidates standing for election as director-general.

Past and present WHO officials and top national politicians are among those who have put their names forward for a job that will prove central to shaping efforts to reduce premature deaths around the world.

The WHO, with a budget for 2006-07 of $3.3bn (€2.6bn, Ł1.8bn) and 8,500 staff, will play an important role in efforts to achieve the United Nations millennium development goals, which aim to cut child mortality, improve maternal health and reverse the growth in the world's leading infectious diseases.

The election, coupled with the selection of a new executive director for the UN-backed Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and malaria, comes at an important time for global health, after the pledge by the Group of Eight leaders to push for as close as possible to universal access to Aids treatment for those who need it by 2010.

It also coincides with a debate on the need for change in the operation of the WHO and more broadly across the entire UN system, and as the race advances to replace Kofi Annan as secretary-general.

Details of the candidates are to be circulated by October 5. The 34 countries on the WHO's executive board will meet on November 6-8 to short-list about half a dozen for presentations and interview.

In a process that has been criticised for its secrecy, they will vote by ballot until a simple majority emerges for one candidate, who is formally then proposed to a full meeting of the 192-country World Health Assembly on November 9. The process will be highly political, with candidates proposed by Burma and Syria, and five from Europe. China and France have both backed a candidate, breaking an informal understanding by some that members of the UN Security Council should not stand.

Some argue it is time for Africa to lead the WHO, particularly given the continent's enormous health challenges and following the departure of Mr Annan, a Ghanaian, as head of the UN. Two past director-generals have been from Asia, and nominees this time from China and Japan risk splitting votes in the region.

The elections were triggered by the unexpected death in office in May of Dr Lee Jong-wook from South Korea, who was credited with implementing important policies including efforts to scale up HIV treatment around the world.

However, he often avoided conflict, notably with the US over issues including intellectual property protection and with China over the status of Taiwan. He also sparked internal animosity with his style in restructuring the agency and decentralising staff from the Geneva headquarters, triggering a strike late last year.

Many critics argue that the WHO's structure, with much of the budget and many nominations determined by its regions, needs to be reformed but that the director-general would need widespread country support to bring about change.

Kamran Abbasi, the editor of the journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in London, said: "The central issue is how much happens at the centre. There is a need for decentralisation backed up by resources."

He also said there was a need to shift from the WHO's focus on communicable diseases to non-communicable ones such as diabetes, which are increasingly important in the developing as well as the developed world. "The WHO was set up to fight communicable disease but this should be a dynamic organisation, not entrenched in a 1940s view."

Prof Christopher Murray from Harvard University said the WHO had a clear advantage in setting standards but there was debate on the suitability of its staffing and resources to translate and implement such guidelines in individual countries.

He also called for a strengthening of the WHO's role in epidemic surveillance, and developing evidence-based policies to strengthen health systems. "There is a lot of rhetoric in this area but little progress. However, everyone involved in scale-up of programmes recognises that how systems are organised, how staff are trained and paid, how they are regulated and managed are absolutely critical.

31/8/2006

NINE CANDIDATES PROPOSED FOR WHO DIRECTOR GENERAL POSITION

By Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen (IP Watch)

The 5 September deadline to fill the top leadership post at the World Health Organization (WHO) is drawing nearer and at least eight candidates have been put forward, of which six are from developing countries and two are women.

The formal list of the candidates will be published on 6 September, a WHO spokesperson told /Intellectual Property Watch/.

After the death in May of former WHO Director General Lee Jong-wook, member countries were asked to propose candidates to replace him by 5 September. Member countries then will have the opportunity to reflect on the candidates, and a short list will be discussed at an executive board meeting on 6-8 November.

The final candidate will be chosen by an extraordinary General Assembly meeting on 9 November, according to the WHO.

The WHO spokesperson confirmed, however, that China has put forward Margaret Chan from Hong Kong. As is the procedure, she has stepped down from her WHO position, at least while the campaign and election is going on, the source said. David Heymann, who used to be acting assistant director-general for communicable diseases at the WHO, has replaced Chan as assistant director general of communicable diseases and Keiji Fukuda, formerly acting director global influenza programme, is now head of avian influenza issues at the WHO, the source said.

Other candidates for the director general position are: Kazem Behbehani from Kuwait, who has been assistant director general external relations and governing bodies at the WHO until he entered became a candidate for the DG position; Julio Frenk from Mexico, currently minister of public health and who also ran for the director general post last time and has worked for the WHO; and Alfredo Palacio Gonzáles from Ecuador, who is currently the country’s president. Bolivia, Brazil and Chile have expressed support for this candidate, according to sources. Bolivia and Brazil are the only South American countries represented at the WHO Executive Board.

In addition there are: David Gunnarsson from Iceland, secretary of the health and social security ministry and who has represented the Nordic countries at the WHO Executive Board until recently; Shigeru Omi from Japan, who until recently was regional director of the Western Pacific regional office of the WHO but who has taken a three to four month leave; Pekka Puska from Finland, who is currently director general of the Finnish National Public Health Institute but who worked on non-communicable diseases at the WHO from 2001 to 2003; Tomris Türman from Turkey, who worked as an executive director for family and community heath at the WHO until recently; and possibly one candidate from Africa, sources say, but this was not confirmed at press time.

Some sources said earlier this summer that Türman also was a candidate from the WHO secretariat to lead a new intergovernmental working group on innovation, public health and intellectual property, but she denied this (/IPW/, Public Health, 25 July 2006).

Some sources argue that as the rotation as Secretary General of the United Nations should go to an Asian candidate after Kofi Annan, whose term ends on 31 December, it is not likely that an Asian candidate will also lead the WHO.

Others argue that as Gro Harlem Brundtland from Norway was director general before Lee, the position should not go to a Nordic country again. But one Nordic source pointed out that both Dr. Lee and the Japanese candidate were from Asia.

Frenk was in Geneva during some days until the evening of 30 August. A flyer for his campaign that he has handed out, and that has been posted on the government’s website, states that: “Health is a foundation for equitable and sustainable development, health is a source of global security”, and “heath is a model for reform of the multilateral system.”

Another source close to one of the candidates said that most of the candidates had been busy traveling this summer visiting governments as part of the election.

/Tove Iren S. Gerhardsen may be reached at tgerhardsen@ip-watch.ch./