|
||
|
TWN Info Service on Intellectual Property Issues (Nov06/03) 10 November 2006
Please find below news stories on the recent election of the WHO Director General. More information on the election procedures can also be found at www.who.int Best
Wishes
SUNS #6137 THURSDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2006 Geneva, 8 Nov (Kanaga Raja) -- The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday nominated Dr Margaret Chan of China to be the next Director-General of the organization. This nomination will be submitted to the World Health Assembly, which is meeting for a one-day special session on Thursday (9 November) to appoint a Director-General. The nomination is expected to be adopted by the Assembly. Dr
Chan will replace Dr Lee Jong-wook of The organization in the interim has been led by Acting Director-General Dr Anders Nordstrom. Dr Nordstrom will continue in this role until the new Director-General takes office. Dr Chan's term of office commences on 4 January 2007 and will end on 30 June 2012. Dr Chan, who was the WHO Director for Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response, took a leave of absence in July in relation to her candidacy for the position of WHO Director-General. Following Dr Lee's death, the Executive Board, at its meeting on 23 May, agreed on an ''accelerated process'' for electing a new Director-General. On
Monday, the Executive Board agreed on a shortlist of five candidates
for the post of Director-General. The five were Dr Kazem Behbehani of
After interviewing the five short-listed candidates on Tuesday, the Board met again Wednesday to nominate a single candidate for the post of Director-General. Four rounds of voting were held in which Dr Chan came first in every round. In each round, the candidate with the lowest vote was eliminated. In the first round, she garnered 10 votes, followed by Dr Omi with 9, Dr Frenk 6, Ms Mendez 5, and Dr Behbehani 4. In the second round, Dr Chan got 11 votes, Dr Frenk 10, Dr Omi 9 and Ms Mendez 4. In the third round, Dr Chan got 15 votes, Dr Frenk 10 and Dr Omi 9. In the final round, Dr Chan got 24 votes and Dr Frenk 10 votes. The Executive Board is composed of 34 Members who are technically qualified in the field of health. The
countries represented on the current Executive Board are: In a brief statement at the Executive Board, Dr Chan expressed appreciation for the vote of confidence given to her by the Board. She said that she had been among a list of candidates that contained some of the leading figures in public health today. She said that Dr Lee will always be remembered for his ''3 by 5'' initiative (a global target to provide three million people living with HIV/AIDS in low and middle-income countries with anti-retroviral treatment by the end of 2005), and that she intended to take Dr Lee's legacy forward. FIVE CANDIDATES SHORTLISTED FOR WHO DIRECTOR-GENERAL SUNS #6136 WEDNESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2006 The five shortlisted candidates (in alphabetical order) are: Dr Kazem Behbehani; Dr Margaret Chan; Dr Julio Frenk; Dr Shigeru Omi; and Ms Elena Salgado Mendez. The five candidates will be interviewed by the Board on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it will nominate one of them for the post of Director-General. This nomination will then be submitted to the World Health Assembly, which is meeting for a one-day special session on Thursday to appoint the next Director-General. According
to media reports, Dr Margaret Chan, a WHO official, came first in every
round of voting, and Dr Shigeru Omi, another WHO official, came in second
place. This was followed by Dr Julio Frenk, The current election process follows the sudden death of Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook on 22 May 2006. Since then, the organization has been headed by Acting Director-General Dr Anders Nordstrom. The Executive Board, at its meeting on 23 May, agreed on an ''accelerated process'' for electing a new Director-General. From 1 June onwards, the 192 Member States of the WHO had the opportunity to propose candidates for the post of Director-General. The deadline for proposals for nominations passed on 5 September. The
names that had been proposed (as at 5 September) were: Dr Kazem Behbehani
(proposed by US ACCUSED OF INTERFERENCE AHEAD OF VOTE FOR NEXT WHO CHIEF Geneva, Nov. 7(AP): The World Health Organization is convening this week to pick its next leader, and some leading public health officials are worried the new chief may not have the strength to stand up to Washington on drug and sexual health policy. Critics
say WHO has been largely controlled behind the scenes by the Leading
public health experts and senior WHO officials told The Associated Press
that ``The
In
one prominent case, the In
a letter to WHO's acting Director-General, a senior official from the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the report ``spuriously''
characterized of ``Standing
up to the The episode has sparked concern from two U.S. Democrats, Senator Edward Kennedy and Representative Henry Waxman, who have called for an investigation into how American trade agreements threaten the health of people in developing countries. ``Attempting
to suppress a report because it is critical of The
five shortlisted contenders were former Hong Kong director of health
and WHO insider Dr. Margaret Chan from Chan and Omi were the frontrunners after the first round of balloting Monday. After two days of mostly closed-door deliberations, WHO's executive board, comprised of 34 representatives from 193 member states, will announce the new leader on Wednesday. For many, the clearest sign of U.S. meddling under Lee's tenure came in January, when WHO's top official in Thailand was stripped of his post after he said in an editorial that a U.S.-Thai free trade agreement would jeopardize Thai access to cheap drugs, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients. The
official, Dr. William Aldis was swiftly dispatched to the WHO's regional
office in Several
Asian newspapers complained about American interference, and the transfer
was the subject of articles in ``This was an example of an instance where there was probably pressure from a certain member state, in this case the U.S., and unfortunately, WHO was not able to take a clear stance in defending health issues,'' said Dr. Tido von Schoen-Angerer, of Medecins Sans Frontieres, which works closely with WHO. Several senior WHO officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, told The Associated Press that American opposition to Aldis was indeed behind his removal. The
``We
had no role in that,'' said Bill Hall, a spokesman for the U.S. Health
and Human Services Department. Though Hall says The
Bush administration has challenged ideologically charged WHO programs
such as needle exchanges and condom distribution. Republican policies
have had a ``chilling'' effect on condom distribution in Bush has made more money available for AIDS research than any previous American president, but that largesse has not been extended to programs in reproductive and sexual health. ``As soon as the word 'abortion' appears, there is likely to be severe scrutiny from the Director-General's office,'' said a WHO official who works on reproductive health issues and spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. In
the case of Advocacy
groups say a free trade agreement with the Since
the publication of Aldis' editorial, the Thailand-U.S. free trade agreement
has been stalled _ largely because of the attention drawn to what the
pact would do to For
some who have worked at the top echelons of WHO, the imprint of the
``A
huge number of decisions at WHO were affected by the In
reproductive health, In malaria control, WHO's recent endorsement of the use of the controversial pesticide DDT was seen by some in the malaria world as a capitulation to the American industries that produce it since other equally effective alternatives exist. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116282988858814513.html CANDIDATES
FROM TOP SHORTLIST FOR WHO DIRECTRO By BETSY MCKAY November 7, 2006; Page A4 The choices reflect growing interest in having WHO assert more leadership in some of the world's biggest public-health challenges, including the battle against pandemic flu and improving health-care delivery in developing countries. The shortlist for director-general emerged from five rounds of voting by the United Nations health agency's 34-member executive board. The board will vote again tomorrow to pick the new director-general. Margaret
Chan, WHO's top communicable-diseases official and a former Drs.
Chan and Omi have been on leave from their WHO posts while pursuing
the agency's top job, to succeed Also still in the running for one of the world's most powerful public-health posts were Kazem Behbehani, a Kuwaiti who is a top WHO external-relations official, and Elena Salgado, Spain's health minister. Both those selections were seen as surprising and may reflect the international politics and horse-trading that goes on behind closed doors during the election process. Ms. Salgado is admired for her strong managerial skill, but had little health-related experience before becoming health minister in 2004. Among
those who had been considered strong candidates but didn't make the
cut yesterday were Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi, a former prime minister of
The five remaining candidates will be interviewed by the board today. They are expected to face tough questions about how they would forge a global strategy for health threats such as AIDS, pandemic flu, tuberculosis and heart disease. Drs.
Chan and Omi have been leading contenders, partly because of their experience
in the battle against severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, and
the earliest outbreaks of avian flu. Dr. Chan also stands out because
she was nominated by Support
for Dr. Frenk, Write to Betsy McKay at betsy.mckay@wsj.com WORLD HEALTH'S TOP JOB DOWN TO SHORTLIST OF FIVE CANDIDATES The Associated Press The five candidates shortlisted for the world's top health job will undergo grilling Tuesday before the World Health Organization's Executive Board with two Asian candidates at the top of the list competing against each other. At the end of voting Monday, WHO bird flu expert Margaret Chan from China held a slight lead in the race to become the WHO's director-general with 32 votes, followed by Shigero Omi, a Japanese who heads WHO's operations in the Western Pacific and China, with 31. Among
the five candidates were also Omi was the only candidate to issue a statement, saying he was "delighted" to be on the shortlist, and that it was "an excellent first step, but there is still a lot of work to be done." The contest for the United Nations' top health job entered its final round Monday with the start of a three-day meeting to nominate a new chief, which narrowed the roster of 11 nominees down to five. Each board member voted for five candidates in each round of secret ballots. Anders Nordstrom, who has been acting director-general since late Director-General Lee Jong-wook died in May, said there is no formal regional rotation for the leadership position. On Wednesday the board will nominate one final candidate for approval by Thursday at a special session of the agency's governing World Health Assembly, made up of all 193 member countries. The
Observers say Hong Kong native Chan, who was the WHO's top official for pandemic influenza as well as the assistant director-general for communicable diseases, has China and other Asian countries backing her, but her chances could be limited because Ban Ki-Moon of South Korea will be the new U.N. secretary-general. A long-standing U.N. tradition holds that the top posts at different agencies are geographically divided. Omi,
a WHO insider with 16 years' experience at the organization's Asia office,
faces the same handicap but could get votes from countries keen to keep
Mexico's Frenk is the only candidate from the Americas after Ecuadorean president Alfredo Palacio Gonzalez dropped out of the running last week. The minister is credited with revamping the country's health system by introducing an insurance system for the poor. Lee took over as director-general of WHO in 2003 as the agency was winding up its battle against the worldwide SARS outbreak. The South Korean died of a brain hemorrhage, aged 61.
|
||
