HEALTH: WHO Secretariat to Gain Diversity

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, May 21 2002 (IPS) - Developing countries will have greater representation on a more gender-balanced World Health Organisation (WHO) secretariat, according to a resolution passed by the World Health Assembly.

The decision of the meeting of health ministers from around the world recognises the need to expand the presence of developing countries in the leadership of the WHO and in the make-up of the United Nations agency’s councils and expert committees.

The composition of the WHO secretariat, based in Geneva, “should reflect the composition of its membership, a majority of which are developing countries,” states the Assembly in its resolution.

Delegates from the developing South had pointed out that such a balance does not exist.

In the secretariat and committees there is great disparity as far as representation of industrialised and poor countries and of men and women, said Fadela Chaïb, WHO spokesperson.

A report published in the latest edition of The Lancet, a British scientific journal, stated that just 29 percent of the WHO’s recently named staff are women, despite a decision by the World Health Assembly underscoring the need to seek a gender balance.

The resolution on the representation of developing countries in the WHO leadership was presented last weekend and approved in a vote that also involved a different initiative presented by delegates from the industrialised North.

The balloting, carried out with the presence of 105 member states, resulted in 64 votes in favour, 41 against and 11 abstentions. The WHO minutes of the meeting state that 49 delegations were absent during the vote.

The votes in favour of the resolution generally came from Asian and African countries, while the Latin American countries abstained and the bloc of transition and industrialised nations voted against.

The Assembly, which got under way May 13, also asked the WHO to “take a strong leadership role in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,” an organisation created under the auspices of the Group of Eight, made up of the world’s most powerful countries.

The main objective of the Fund is to collect, manage and distribute resources to be utilised in a complementary way to other forms of assistance in combating the three diseases, which are the most devastating worldwide.

Tuberculosis causes two million deaths annually, HIV (human immuno-deficiency virus) – the precursor to AIDS – has infected 58 million people in two decades, 22 million of whom have died, while malaria causes 3,000 deaths each day.

The Assembly delegates from the regions hit hardest by these diseases called on the WHO to provide support to countries in greatest need to prepare expertise-based proposals for financing from the Fund.

WHO assistance is also needed in strengthening the capacity of poor countries to manufacture high-quality, affordable drugs, including antiretrovirals for treating people who have HIV/AIDS, they said.

Representatives from the nations where HIV/AIDS is most widespread, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, support an expanded distribution of antiretrovirals.

Providing medications is more “cost effective when compared with the costs of treating opportunistic infections or caring for millions of orphans,” said an African delegate.

The same countries urged the WHO to provide greater support to programmes aimed at reducing the transmission of HIV from mother to infant.

Another important decision the Assembly adopted on the weekend was to order a halt to the destruction of smallpox virus reserves, which was to be completed this year.

The new policy is based on fears of acts of bioterrorism using smallpox strains that still exist in laboratories in the United States and Russia, although the disease has been eradicated worldwide.

The resolution of the World Health Assembly states that it is necessary to proceed with new research in orer to provide protection to the population in case of the deliberate dissemination of the virus by terrorists.

The fear that chemical or biological agents might be used intentionally to harm the population rose dramatically after the Sep 11 attacks in Washington and New York, and the cases of anthrax spores sent through the postal service.

The smallpox virus inventories are held by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in the U.S. city of Georgia, and by the State Virology Research Centre of Russia, in Koltsovo.

The smallpox research programme must be carried out with transparency and the results must be made available to all WHO member states, according to the Assembly decision.

Developing countries had expressed concern that the industrialised nations would keep the conclusions confidential.

The World Health Assembly also approved a resolution that declares the latest Israeli military offensive in the Palestinian territories “a serious health problem.”

The decision calls on WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland to visit the Palestinian territories as soon as possible to assess the health problems arising from the isolation and destruction caused by the presence of the Israeli forces.

WHO executive director David Nabarro pointed out that the government of Israel has not responded to a previous request for visas allowing health officials from the UN agency to visit the occupied territories.