Appeal to the WHO Executive Board on Election of Regional Directors

The Lancet‘s report1Burki T Criticism over WHO Regional Director nominee.Lancet. 2023; 4021029Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (0) Google Scholar on the October and November elections of WHO regional directors included concerns raised by experts2Buse K Rao JVRP Lin V WHO regional elections —more transparency and scrutiny essential.Lancet. 2023; 4011925Summary Full Text Full Text PDF Scopus (2) Google Scholar who called for greater transparency of the election process. Ensuring merit-based appointments would enhance the effectiveness of regional and country WHO offices and help build trust in the organisation. The regional offices posted applications of nominees on their websites and two of the regions broadcast public forums. These welcome actions gave the public and WHO member states insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates, thereby enabling some external scrutiny. An informal meeting of the WHO Executive Board will discuss the selection process of regional directors in December. This meeting will provide an opportunity to explore reforms to align the regional election processes with good governance practices and public expectations. One proposal is to abolish the electoral process altogether in favour of the Director-General appointing regional directors.3Secretariat to The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and ResponseWorld Health Organization: an institutional review.https://theindependentpanel.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Background-paper-15-WHO-Institutionalreview.pdfDate: May, 2021Date accessed: October 23, 2023Google Scholar This change might not obviate the political nature of the appointments but would serve One WHO aspirations. That reform is unlikely to happen as the regions will possibly resist losing the opportunities elections provide for political horse trading. Reforms that would help make elections fairer for the contestants in all WHO regional election processes include: WHO revisiting criteria and competencies for nominations; regional offices publishing all nominee applications on their websites; ensuring regional directors and the Director-General are available to meet with all nominated candidates; regional committees convening public town halls in advance of elections where WHO staff and the public, including journalists, have the opportunity to submit questions to nominees; regional committees instructing regional offices to recruit human resources firms to review and verify applications and submitting reports on each candidate to the relevant regional committee; regional committees forming working groups, drawing on the EURO rules of procedure of the Regional Committee,4WHO Regional Committee for EuropeRules of procedure of the Regional Committee for Europe and of the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe.https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/Rules-of-Procedure-2019Date: Sept 16, 2019Date accessed: October 23, 2023Google Scholar to undertake preliminary evaluations and prepare a shortlist for the committee; and regional offices publicly broadcasting the candidates' job interviews. We also propose that regional directors be restricted to one term of 7 years in office. Performance of the director should be assessed by the regional committee and the Director-General at the midway point, the negative result of which could be a trigger for a new election. A more difficult set of issues concerns alleged corruption and non-adherence to codes of conduct with respect to vote trading, negative campaigning, and campaign finance. Spendings and full transparency of campaign contributions is needed. We suggest for the WHO secretariat to establish a whistleblower function during elections. The secretariat could recommend that the committee rescinds the nomination should breaches occur. In keeping with principles of integrity in public office5UK Committee on Standards in Public LifeSeven principles of public life (the Nolan Principles).https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life/the-7-principles-of-public-life--2Date: 1995Date accessed: October 23, 2023Google Scholar and with UN rules concerning the misuse of office, individuals involved with nominating member state candidates should be barred from nominating close relatives and friends. Strong regional WHO leadership is increasingly possible to emerge with improved leadership selection processes. We encourage the WHO Executive Board to propose reforms that will lead to regional directors who can manage a multinational workforce and bring member states together, while the geopolitical fires rage and impede progress on health for all. We declare no competing interests.